The correlation between illite/smectite (I/S) diagenesis and mean vitrinite reflectance (Ro) data is examined in mudrocks from a hydrocarbon exploration well (geothermal gradient 35°C km−1) from the Great Hungarian Plain of the Pannonian Basin System. The expandability of I/S decreases with depth and there is a change from random to ordered mixed-layering at about 2500 m depth. At this depth Ro is about 0.6%. Comparison of the correlation of expandability and Ro from this study to published data for the Vienna Basin and the Transcarpathian Basin, sub-basins of the Pannonian Basin System, shows that the correlation is systematically different for each sub-basin, according to their thermal histories. In the Vienna Basin (geothermal gradient 25°C km−1), for any given value of Ro, the expandability of I/S is less than in the Transcarpathian Basin (geothermal gradient 55°C km−1) and the sediments are older and more deeply buried. Data from the present study are intermediate. This variation is believed to be due to the effect of time on the smectite-to-illite reaction. Results of an optimization procedure to calculate the kinetics of the smectite-to-illite reaction, using as input the expandability depth profiles, and thermal histories constrained by comparison of observed and calculated Ro data, showed that I/S diagenesis in the Pannonian Basin System can be modelled by a single first order rate equation:

$-dS/dt=e^{log(A)-E/RT}\cdot S$

Seven sedimentary bentonite deposits were investigated in the Miocene series of the Pannonian Basin. The following stratigraphic and genetic characteristics were significant: (1) all deposits were formed within a transgressive series of a given Miocene sequence; and (2) it is possible that the source material of the bentonites is rhyolitic, confirmed by radiometric data proving simultaneous rhyolite tuff volcanism.

A detailed investigation on three lithologically different bentonite horizons within the same transgressive series was made at Sajoábaábony to determine the source material and to determine the causes of the differences. X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis and geochemical data of the different lithological types show that they all have rhyolitic source material, although in the case of the lowermost horizon the existence of reworked material from an underlying andesite tuff series is also presumed. The main difference is the degree of weathering. Considering the ratio between the amorphous phase and the montmorillonite, the amorphous volcanic glass can be regarded as the main source of the montmorillonite formation. The differences in the degree of alteration can be related to the changing characteristics of the tuff accumulation and the sedimentation. Transgression decreases the sedimentation rate allowing the optimal alteration of the amorphous phase. The increasing intensity of the tuff accumulation can also limit the bentonite formation because rapid deposition and burial present too little time for the optimal alteration of the amorphous phase.

Summarizing the results from the stratigraphic interpretation of the bentonite deposits and from the comparative analyses of the different bentonite horizons within the same transgressive systems tract, we can state that the relationship of the tectonic-related tuff accumulation and the eustasy-related sedimentation rate can affect both the possibility of bentonite formation in macro-scale and the degree of bentonitization in micro-scale.

Lacustrine sediments of the Hajnáčka I maar of southern Slovakia contain teeth and skeletal remains of a mammal fauna, including index Early Villanyian arvicoline rodents. U–Pb dating of magmatic zircons extracted from the redeposited fossiliferous maar sediments revealed a total of six volcanic events. The oldest age of 3.43 Ma was interpreted as that corresponding to the initial phreato-magmatic eruption that created the maar. Most zircons grouped around 3.06 ± 0.03 Ma, the age attributed to the catastrophic eruption that killed the mammal assemblage thriving within and around the maar studied. This age coincides with the 3.1 Ma boundary between the MN 16a and 16b subzones of the European Mammal Neogene chronostratigraphic scale estimated from the succession of Early Villanyian palaeontological localities according to the hypsometry of rodent teeth. Younger zircon ages overlapped those of the neighbouring basaltic lava flows, necks and dykes, thus recording superimposed effusions. The youngest 1.58 Ma old zircon defines the age limit for the final redeposition of the fossiliferous sediments in the maar drainage lake regime.