Zakázanka
Menu- Welcome to Zakázanka
- In search of bygone eons
- An example of a reverse fault and a crush zone
- Folds
- A fault separating two geological periods
- Iron ore
- Exposed boundary
- What is growing here (1)
- What is growing here (2)
- Little warm lovers
- Sun lovers
- Bedrock
- Fluvial sandy gravels of the vineyard terrace
- Local denizens of the air
- A window into Prague's geological past
- Iron ore on the zoo grounds
- The rock face bears silent witness
- Regeneration of the rocky steppe
A window into Prague's geological past
The Zakázanka Path offers a unique opportunity to contemplate the rich geological past of Central Bohemia. From here, you can enjoy a captivating view into the Vltava river valley known as the Prague Basin. The basin was carved out during the Quaternary Period (which lasted around 2.5 million years) from the plateau that extended over most of the Bohemian territory during the latest Tertiary Period. Gradually, the plateau was furrowed by river erosion, the current slowly shaping the modern relief of the terrain. Little by little, Quaternary erosion exposed geological features of different ages, thus enabling us to study them.
Scattered here and there on the edges of the Prague Basin are walls of sheer rock formed by unfolded Upper Cretaceous sandstone. These, along with White Mountain marlstone, are evidence of the last sea expansion (called an "incursion") to have penetrated into Central Bohemia, an event that occurred about 100 million years ago.
The heart of the Prague Basin is carved out of folded marine deposits of Paleozoic age (from the Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian periods), whose richness in fossils has brought fame to Central Bohemia. The discovery of these formations is indelibly linked with the name of Joachim Barrande (1799–1883), a French paleontologist. In honor of his work, the vast area near Prague where these scientific treasures can be found was named the Barrandien.
The Barrandien region also includes late Proterozoic rock formations that underlie Paleozoic strata. These rocks, too, formed on the seafloor, but many aspects of their history are still unclear, inasmuch as they lack fossils which, if they were present, would enable detailed dating and allow us to learn more about the life that existed at the time and place they formed. The discoveries made there so far have largely been the remains of single-celled organisms and algae.
The rocks on Petřín Hill
The rocks on Petřín Hill, formed by Upper Cretaceous sandstones, are of freshwater origin at the bottom, but higher up they bear the imprints of marine mollusks.
Trilobite
Ectillaenus katzeri, a species of trilobite found during the construction of a hotel in the Podbaba neighborhood; it is about 450 million years old.
A colony of organisms
A colony of organisms with a lattice-like exoskeleton found in Šárka (Prague 6) and classified as Bohemipora pragensis.
