Tectonic Evolution of the Eastern Black Sea and Caucasus: an introduction

Abstract

This Special Publication presents the results of 15 different studies in the Black SeaCaucasus segment of the Alpine-Tethys orogenic realm. The main focus of these studies is the style and timing of key tectonic events occurring primarily during the area's post-Pangaean evolution. The methodologies encompass: geophysics, including active and passive crustal-scale seismology and common depth point reflection seismic profiling (both onshore and marine), palaeomagnetism and magnetostratigraphy; field geology, including biostratigraphic recorrelation; radiochronology; igneous rock geochemistry, including analyses of the obducted ophiolites; and low-temperature thermochronology. The geological record of the area is essentially one of sedimentary basins formed in an extensional back-arc setting and their subsequent compressional deformation during the closure of at least two branches of the Neotethys Ocean system.

Geodynamics, seismicity, and seismic hazards of the Caucasus

“…The Caucasus located in the central part of the mobile Alpine-Himalayan belt is the result of a continental collision between the AR-EU plates (Dewey et al, 1973;Khain, 1975;Adamia, 1975;Dercourt et al, 1986;Zonenshain and Le Pichon, 1986;Zonenshain et al, 1987;Philip et al, 1989;Okay and Şahintürk, 1997;Allen et al, 2004;Vincent et al, 2007;Zakariadze et al, 2007;Sosson et al, 2010aSosson et al, , 2017Adamia et al, 2011Adamia et al, , 2017Albino et al, 2014;Cavazza et al, 2017;Alania et al, 2017). The ongoing interaction of these plates controls the present geodynamics and the seismicity of the Caucasus (McKenzie, 1972;Jackson and McKenzie, 1988;Ambraseys and Jackson, 1998;Berberian and Yeats, 1999;Allen et al, 2004;Panahi, 2006;Karakhanyan et al, 2013Karakhanyan et al, , 2017Şeşetyan et al, 2018).…”

“…Tectonic stresses induced by the northward motion of the Arabian plate are absorbed to a considerable degree in the Peri-Arabian ophiolitic suture zone and the Zagros fold-thrust belt. North of these structures the tectonic stresses are propagated towards the Central Caucasus by means of a relatively rigid block (Albino et al, 2014;Adamia et al, 2017aAdamia et al, , 2017bSosson et al, 2017;Cavazza et al, 2017Cavazza et al, , 2018Cavazza et al, , 2019.…”

Petroleum geology of the Black Sea: introduction

“…Anatolia to the south of the Black Sea is a notable collage of different continental and oceanic fragments (Okay & Tüysüz 1999;Okay 2008;Hippolyte et al 2015). Uncertainty exists with regard to the timing of the amalgamation events and their consequences (Sosson et al , 2017. Nonetheless, the subduction of branches of Neotethys to the south of the present-day Black Sea led to phases of arc volcanism and extension (although the two are not always clearly related) on the southern margin of Laurasia within the Mesozoic (Fig.…”

From the Eastern Paratethys to the Pontocaspian basins

“…The Caucasus mountain ranges formed during an orogenic episode following the continentcontinent collision of Africa-Arabia and Eurasia initiated during the Oligocene (Vincent et al 2007). This resulted in an inversion of the back-arc basin that preceded the Greater Caucasus (Saintot et al, 2006), the active basin margin preceding the Lesser Caucasus and numerous island-arc and rift basins of the neo-Tethys (Kazmin et al, 2000;Sosson et al, 2017). The inversion also produced the fold and thrust belts associated with the foreland Kura Basin (Fig.…”

“…features south-verging thrusts and opposite back-thrusts that fold the overlying Kura Basin sediments. Deformation in the foreland fold-thrust belt initiated in the western part during or prior to the Akchagylian, after which deformation shifted eastwards (Forte et al, 2015;Sosson et al, 2017). The deformation weakens southwards (Sosson et al, 2017).…”