Popov 2010 Sea Level Fluctuation

ISSN 08695938, Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation, 2010, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 200224. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.
., 2010.
Original Russian Text S.V. Popov, M.P. Antipov, A.S. Zastrozhnov, E.E. Kurina, T.N. Pinchuk, 2010, published in Stratigrafiya. Geologicheskaya Korrelyatsiya, 2010, Vol. 18,
No. 2, pp. 99124.
200
INTRODUCTION
By the terminal Paleogene, Paratethys had com
prised two major marginal seasAlpineCarpathian
and CaucasusKopetDag, each having a deep axial
part and the northern and southern shelves (Shcherba,
1993; Popov et al., 2004). In the OligoceneMiocene,
the flysch basins of the Carpathians and Caucasus
closed and formed the Pannonian and EuxinicCas
pian intracontinental semiclosed or closed basins.
The latter was named as Eastern Paratethys. Its south
ern shelf had a complicated and yet unclear paleogeo
graphic history as it was constantly affected by Alpine
tectonic movements and underwent orogenic pro
cesses in large measures. Therefore, the history of sea
level fluctuations is easy to trace by the data of sedi
mentation on the northern and eastern shelves that
occurred on a more stable platform basement.
MATERIALS AND METHOD
Shallowwater and coastal sediments of small
thickness, as well as relatively deepwater facies (up to
a depth of 1000 m) that had accumulated in major
depressions, such as the West Kuban and TerekCas
pian, covered the vast shelf of the East European Plat
form, and the Scythian and Turan plates. Sediments of
the inner shelf were intensely rewashed by coastal cur
rents and cut down in the valleys of large rivers. It is
there that the stages of sealevel fluctuations can be
most clearly observed. During the transgressions, the
coastline of the basins retreated far northward and
eastward, and the sea rushed into river valleys and
overlapped continental sediments. Such stages are well
dated by sediments ingressed far into the platform.
The tracing of coastal facies and coastlines, and the
interpretation of lithological and faunal data, allowed
reconstructing in detail the paleogeography of the
basins for nearly each of the regional stages of the Oli
Sealevel Fluctuations on the Northern Shelf
of the Eastern Paratethys in the OligoceneNeogene
S. V. Popov
a
, M. P. Antipov
b
, A. S. Zastrozhnov
c
, E. E. Kurina
b
, and T. N. Pinchuk
d
a
Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya ul. 123, Moscow, 117997 Russia
email: serg.pop@mail.ru
b
Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevskii per. 7, Moscow, 119017 Russia
c
AllRussia Research Institute of Geology, Srednii pr. 74, St. Petersburg, 199026 Russia
d
Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia
Received January 26, 2009
AbstractSealevel fluctuations in the terminal Eocene, Oligocene, and Neogene of the Eastern Paratethys
are quantitatively assessed on the basis of facies and old coastlines traced on the northern platform shelf, levels
of river valley incisions, and the study of seismic profiles. The first data massif allows the characterization and
correlation of transgression stages in the history of the Eastern Paratethys. The greatest transgressions fall
within the first half of the Late Eocene, midEarly Oligocene, initial Late Oligocene, initial Early Miocene,
the initial Tchokrakian, Karaganian and Sarmatian in the Middle Miocene, the middle and late Sarmatian
and early Pontian in the Late Miocene, and the Akchagylian in the Caspian basin of the Pliocene. In contrast,
the greatest incisions of northern rivers running from the platform allow us to establish the time and extent of
the main declines in the base levels of the erosion. Maximal incisions date back to the terminal Eoceneini
tial Oligocene, terminal Solenovian time in the terminal Rupelian, the terminal Maikop in the Early
Miocene, the terminal Sarmatian and middle Pontian in the Late Miocene, and the Early Pliocene in the
Caspian basin. Large regressions also formed unconformity surfaces, traced on seismic profiles as erosion
boundaries of several orders. The surfaces are confined to the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, middle and late
Maikop, Sarmatian/Meotian boundary, middle Pontian, and terminal Mioceneinitial Pliocene, as well as
being traced even in the most deepwater basins. The synthesis of these data suggests a preliminary version for
the curve of transgressionregression cyclicity. Its correlation with the eustatic curve shows their similarity
only in the lower partprior to the initial Middle Miocene, when Paratethys became a semiclosed basin.
Key words: transgressions, regressions, coastlines, incisions, seismic profiles, eustatics, Scythian and Turan
plates, Paleogene, Miocene.
DOI: 10.1134/S0869593810020073
STRATIGRAPHY AND GEOLOGICAL CORRELATION Vol. 18 No. 2 2010
SEALEVEL FLUCTUATIONS ON THE NORTHERN SHELF 201
gocene and Neogene in the period of the basins max
imal fillup (Fig. 1; Popov et al., 2004).
To establish quantitatively the amplitude of sea
level fluctuations, the facies assessment of the pale
obasin depth, as well as the absolute heights, at which
sediments of the transgression series occur, are of great
importance. Although the depth and heights were
undoubtedly changed in some structures by successive
tectonic processes, the relationship of absolute heights
inside the structures remains constant, and averaged
data without regard for extreme values allow for com
paring the transgression levels of a different age.
The dimensions and the nature of a basin during
regression stages are more difficult to trace. Sediments
of such stages are confined to depressions and often
cut only by deep boreholes. Therefore, data on such
sediments are fragmentary, and coastlines are impossi
ble to reconstruct. Seismic materials provide impor
tant information on regression stages in the evolution
of basins. The time and the range of a decline in the
base level of erosion during regressions can be estab
lished by the depth of the incision of large rivers, which
date the drops of the base level of erosion. However,
the complexities of dating the incisions, especially in
continental facies, make the use of this source of infor
mation difficult. A.S. Zastrozhnov examined the Neo
gene history of the paleoDon Rivers lower reaches
more fully.
The main features of sedimentation, relationships
between sediments and underlying and overlying
sequences, incisions in deltaic facies, and the mode of
sediment superposition controlled by sealevel fluctu
ations are traced in seismic profiles (Kunin et al.,
1989, 1990; Gillet et al., 2005; Antipov et al., 2005;
Kurina et al., 2007, and others). Profiles compiled on
the basis of drilling and seismic data suggest that all
major depressions had the structure referred to as
topodepressions (Shlezinger, 1998): their deepwater
parts were bordered by clear submarine slopes. Sedi
mentation on the slopes proceeded by way of lateral
accretion, and sediments made up prograding clino
forms, well traced in the seismic profiles. To interpret
these data, the reflecting horizons should be exactly
dated and seismic information should be correlated
with the results of borehole drilling. T.N. Pinchuk car
ried out such dating along the profile IIII* through
the West Kuban depression. Interpretation along the
profile was previously carried out by different
researchers (400 Million , 2005; Afanasenkov et al.,
2007, and others). The seismostratigraphic analysis of
the available geologicalgeophysical material, which
we have carried out, allowed us to construct a verified
model for the formation of the West Kuban depression
in the Cenozoic. Since the Paleocene, the depression
exhibited an inherited evolution at the site of the
JurassicCretaceous sedimentary basin of the mar
ginalsea type.
Based on all these data, we try in this work to assess
the range of sealevel fluctuations on the northern
shelf of Eastern Paratethys in the terminal Paleogene
and in the Neogene.
THE TRACING OF FACIES AND COASTLINES
In the western part of the shelf, the vast Belaya
Glina (Kharkov) basin preceding the Oligocene one
had a common shelf with the AlpineCarpathian
basin and in places overlapped the Ukrainian Shield
and interfered far into the Volga and Transcaspian
regions since the midLate Eocene (zones NP19ini
tial NP20, beds with Globigerapsis index, the time of
deposition of Mandrikov beds) (Popov et al., 2004,
map 1). Sediments of the basin occur in many places
at a height of up to +150 m (Fig. 2a). A sharp regres
sion and a change in the tectonic pattern of the whole
AlpineCaucasian belt took place in the terminal Late
Eocene (beds with Bolivina), which was determined by
a fast postrift subsidence with a formation of a deep
sedimentary basin (400 Million , 2005).
The further presentation of the material was subdi
vided chronologically into a description of transgres
sionregression cycles of the Maikop (Oligocene
Early Miocene) time, the history of basins of the ter
minal Early and Middle Miocene (Tarkhanian and
Tchokrakian) and basins of the terminal Middle
MiocenePliocene.
The Maikop Basin
The northern BlackSea region. Maikop sediments
occur on Beloglinian (Kharkov) sediments in the
northern part with a hiatus, the range of which
increases towards margins of the BlackSea depres
sion. Deposits of the Rubanov Formation (NP21
Zone, beds with Cibicides almensis) are known only
from boreholes and correspond to the initial transgres
sion of the Oligocene, when the sea extended only east
of the EvpatoriaSkadov Fault (Chekunov et al.,
1976). The maximum of the Early Oligocene trans
gression falls within the Nikopol time, when shallow
water facies with rich benthonic fauna reached the
City of Nikopol, where they were stripped by quarries
at an absolute height of +20 m. By the end of that
time, the sea had regressed, and the subsequent
Molochan Formation (Ostracoda beds of the Solen
ovian Horizon) exhibits a transgressive overlapping in
places, though, it does not reach the boundaries of the
Nikopol basin. The deposits do not expose on the sur
face and pinch out at a depth of about 10 m in mar
ginal parts and, probably, are cut off in the course of
the subsequent regression (data of Veselov in (Chek
unov et al., 1976, Fig. 24)). The sediments of the over
lying Serogozy Formation reflect conditions of a grad
ual regression: clay and silt are replaced upward by
sand with coastal fauna. The overlying ferruginized
weathering crust and fossil plants suggest the conti
nental regime of sedimentation.
202
POPOV et al.
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Fig. 2. Correlation of shorelines of transgression phases in the Eastern Paratethys. (a) (1) Late Eocene, (2) Early Oligocene,
(3) Late Oligocene, (4) Early Miocene; (b) (1) early Tchokrakian, (2) early Konkian, (3) middle Sarmatian.
Fig. 1. The paleogeographic map of the Eastern Paratethys in the midLate Miocene (Meotian) (after Ilina et al. in (Popov et al.,
2004)).
(1) Conglomerate; (2) sand; (3) clay; (4) limestone; (5) mountains and uplands; (6) lakes; (7) shallow shelf; (8) deep shelf;
(9) bathyal; (10) direction of terrigenous material drift; (11) deltas; (12) overthrusts; (13) volcanics; (14) landsea boundary in
the early Meotian; (15) landsea boundary in the early Pontian; (16) volcanoes.
204
POPOV et al.
The overlying Upper Oligocene Askania Forma
tion exhibits transgressive overlapping near the north
ern boundary of the sediments and pinches out below
the day surface at a depth of 1520 m and, like the
overlying Gornostaievskaya Formation (lowermost
Lower Miocene), is represented by clay and silt with
the benthonic fauna (Chekunov et al., 1976, and oth
ers). Northward, the clay deposits of the Gornos
taievskaya Formation give way to coastal sandy facies,
which pinch out at a depth of 3540 m. The following
Chernobaevskaya Formation, which is correlated with
the Sarakaulian time interval, is composed of black
clay, silt, and sand occurring at a level with an absolute
height of about 100 m. The clay of the Karzha beds
and Korolev (Ritsa) Formation of the Kozachurian,
which were replaced towards the coast and up the sec
tion by silt and sand, was deposited on the sediments
under conditions of a regressive basin. Hence, the
whole sequence demonstrates a gradual regression of
the Maikop sea basin. The sediments are overlapped
with a hiatus and transgression by thin (up to 6 m) green
sands of the Mayachkov Formation with a depleted
assemblage of benthonic foraminifers and diatoms. The
formation is also correlated with the Kozachurian
(Nosovskii and Semenenko in (Neogene , 1986)) or
the Tarkhanian (Chekunov et al., 1976) times.
Northern Ukraine. Analogs of the Maikopian
deposits in marine facies are developed there in the
DnieperDonets depression. Under conditions of the
platform trough flooded with sea only sporadically,
sandy sediments corresponding to maximal transgres
sions were accumulated. The Lower Oligocene
Mezhigor Formation (comprising dinocysts Wezeliella
gochtii and W. clathrata, according to A.B. Stotlands
data) is made of glauconite sand and lies with the hia
tus on the beds of the Eocene Obukhov Formation. In
the Kiev region, marine sediments of the formation
occur at an absolute height of +100 m.
Southeastward, in the northern Donets Basin,
there are developed quartz sands of the Sivashi Subfor
mation of the Berek Formation, which is dated to the
Late Oligocene by the presence of dinocysts with
Wezeliella gochtii, Rhombodinium draco. Though,
warmwater marine mollusks characteristic of the ini
tial Miocene (collected by I.N. Remizov (Popov et al.,
1993)) appear in its upper part. The sediments are
stripped by a quarry in the type section near the Village
of Sivashi at a height of +170+180 m. Sandy sedi
ments of the same Late OligoceneEarly Miocene age
are described from the southern part of the Dnieper
Donets depression, in the quarry near the Village of
Gubinikha (Ivanov et al., 2007), where they are
stripped at a height of +115+120 m.
VolgaDon Interfluve and Ciscaucasia. The shal
lowwater zone of the Maikop basin extended in the
VolgaDon interfluve from the Manych lakes to Vol
gograd (Semenov and Stolyarov, 1988). The Lower
Tsymlyansk Subformation of the Lower Oligocene,
which is represented by silty clays with diverse ben
thonic fauna, occurs on the Sol (Beloglinian) Subfor
mation with a hiatus (Voronina et al., 1988; Popov
et al., 1993). It is exposed near Volgograd and pene
trated by boreholes at a height of +80+100 m. The
sediments extended north of Volgograd as well, where
they were retained in the Balyklei graben, but were
mainly wiped out by erosion. Coastal facies are not
found. The Upper Tsymlyansk Subformation is of a
smaller spatial distribution, but in places is also found
up to a height of about +100 m.
The Solenovian Formation often exhibits a trans
gressive overlapping, in places with a deep washout (to
the Paleocene). Marginal facies of the formation low
ermost parts (Ostracod beds) are represented by silty
clays with typical brackishwater fauna and are
exposed near the VolgaDon Canal at a height of
+80+90 m. The overlying Ikiburul beds represented
by coastal ferruginous sands and silts are less devel
oped and pinch out southerly but nearly at the same
height.
Exposed in the same region, in northern Ergeni,
are the coastal sediments of the Kalmyk Formations
lowermost part (lowermost Chattian), where euryha
line mollusks indicative of coastal lagoon facies of the
sea basin were found in lenses of ferruginized sand
stone (Voronina et al., 1988). The development of
overlying sediments suggests the regression of the
Maikop basin: the upper subformation of the Kalmyk
Formation is exposed southerly in northern Ergeni at
an absolute height of about +70 m, and Miocene sed
iments (Nugrin, Aradyk, Tsagankhak formations) rep
resented by basin facies (sandy clays) are known only
in southern Ergeni and exposed at a height of about
+60 m.
To the south, on the Scythian Plate, Maikop
deposits are known only from borehole data. In plat
form regions, contrary to depressions, the Maikop clay
section is rich in sandy interlayers. Middle Maikop
sediments, making up bodies from 5 to 130 m thick
and 100150 m wide, are regionally traced from the
Rostov salient to the Berezan area of the western
Ciscaucasia. Sand and conglomerate bands are found
at this level (beds with Haplophragmoides kjurendagen
sisUvigerinella californica and Bulimina tumidula) to
the east as well, which indicates shoaling and a possi
ble short hiatus in the terminal Oligocene or an inten
sifying terrigenous drift from the platform. The upper
part of the upper Maikop deposits (analogs of the
Kozachurian) are lacking in the northern platform
part of the western Ciscaucasia up to the latitude of the
City of PrimotskAkhtarsk.
Further eastward, in the Caspian region, sediments
of the Maikop sea basin are completely annihilated by
erosion. The sediments represented by outer shelf
facies are retained only in the Buzachi trough and
Mangyshlak.
Northern UstyurtNorthern Aral region. In the
eastern periphery of the basin, shallowwater facies are
retained best and are accessible for studying as they are
wellexposed in sections of chinks (border scarps).
That is why the distribution of coastal and lagoonal
facies, the replacement of them by continental sedi
ments, and migration in time were reconstructed in
detail on a considerable area (results of geological sur
veys of the trust Aerogeologiya, Voznesenskii, 1978).
The middle Priabonian transgression and the latest
Eocene regression were revealed there as well. The sea
basin began retreating from the territory of Western
Siberia and the Turgai depression in the middle of the
Late Eocene (Cheganian). The Aral region got
drained nearly completely by the terminal Eocene,
and the sea remained only within the axial part of the
North Ustyurt depression by the initial Oligocene
(Ashcheairykian).
The subsequent vast transgression in the early Ash
cheairykian proceeded via Turgai and reached the
West Siberian Lowland (Kurgan beds). Then, a short
term regression set in during the middle Ash
cheairykian and a new transgression, in the second
half of the Ashcheairykian (Voznesenskii, 1978,
Fig. 28). Deposits became coarser and areas of the sea
basin and coastal plain reduced in the terminal Ash
cheairykian.
Regression still persisted in initial Solenovian time
followed by a new transgression phase, when the sea
flooded the coastal plain in the form of large ingression
bays. The grade of particles in terrigenous materials
continued to increase, which indicated intensification
of denudation and river runoff. Intense accumulation
of olitic iron ores of commercial importance was still
in progress in deltaic areas. In the terminal Early Oli
gocene, regression set in, and rocks of the Solenovian
Formation, as well as the Ashcheairykian Formation
on the Chagrai Plateau, were eroded. Hence, a decline
in the base level of erosion made up dozens of meters
at that time.
In the Late Oligocene (Karatomacian), the sea
regained its dimensions, clayeysilty deposits bor
dered by a narrow strip of sandysilty grounds of
shoals predominated. Valley of large rivers, whose del
tas gradually encroached upon the northern territo
ries, passed along the axial zone of the Chelkar trough
and the eastern slope of the Kulanda Syncline (Vozne
senskii, 1978, Fig. 30). The transgression reached its
maximum in the first half of the Baigubekian time,
when marine sandy sediments with Cerastoderma prig
orovskii, Corbula helmerseni occupied vast areas in the
northern Aral region (Voznesenskii, 1978, Fig. 31),
southern Aral region, and Kyzyl Kum territory. The
sea had retreated and sediments had been substituted
for coastallagoonal deposits with freshwater fauna by
the terminal Baigubekian. A new small transgression
phase took place in the initial Miocene (Kintykchin
ian time, often regarded as part of the Baigubekian),
which was followed by a considerable regression. Hav
ing given way to a coastal plain with lagoonal and
lacustrine sedimentation of the Aralian time, sea con
ditions were retained probably only in the most warped
part of the North Ustyurt trough (Voznesenskii, 1978,
Fig. 33).
Basins of the Terminal EarlyMiddle Miocene
(TarkhanianKonkian)
Northern BlackSea region. In the western coastal
part of the shelf, Tarkhanian sediments were mainly
wiped out by the subsequent Neogene erosion. Only
two exposures of the lowermost Tarkhanian thin (0.3
2.5 m) shellylimy sediments (near the Village of
Tomakovka and the Settlement of Kamenka) with
shallowwater assemblages of diverse sea mollusks,
and the benthonic foraminifers and ostracodes (abso
lute heights +100 and +50 m), were retained. The
same rocks were found in the Tchokrakian basal con
glomerate (Nosovskii and Semenenko in (Neogene ,
1986)).
The Tchokrakian deposits represented by sandy
clayey and calcareous sediments with the benthonic
fauna were penetrated only by boreholes in the
Danube and Dniester interfluve, the Ingulets River
basin, near Kakhovka, and in the Nikopol region
(Nosovskii and Semenenko in (Neogene , 1986)).
Even in deepwater parts of the BlackSea depression,
the sediments occur with the hiatus and conglomerate
at the base. It is only in the most warped parts of the
depression that Maikopiantype clay accumulation
was still in progress at that time (Chekunov et al.,
1976).
Karaganian sediments are widely developed, unin
terruptedly continue the Tchokrakian transgression
cycle and occur on Miocene, Paleogene, and Precam
brian rocks. The sediments are represented by sandy
clays replaced eastwards by limestones 12m thick in
the peripheral part. Near Nikopol, Karaganian green
clays are stripped by deep quarries at a height of
+25+30 m. Beds with Spaniodontella, Ervilia and
Folada are of similar distribution, but beds with Ervilia
represent a regressive series.
The Konkian beds are widely developed in the east
ern part of the BlackSea region, where they occur on
the Karaganian deposits, and only in the northern
most part they overlap transgressively the Paleogene
beds. The Sartaganian beds of the Konkian regional
stage, which are composed of sandyclayey facies
(0.51.5 m) with a rich polyhaline fauna, occur with a
hiatus on beds with Barnea (Nosovskii and Seme
nenko in (Neogene , 1986)). The Veselyanian beds
are of a wider development and exhibit a greater thick
ness compared to the Sartaganian beds. The Veselya
nian beds are exposed on the Konka River at a height
of about +80 m. Regression, a continental nondeposi
tion, during which erosion annihilated a major part of
the sediments is confined to the terminal Konkian.
VolgaDon Interfluve and Ciscaucasia. The north
ern boundary of Tarkhanian marine sediments passes
through the southern part of the presentday Tima
shevskaya bench at depths ranging from from 1100 to
206
POPOV et al.
2500 m and in the northern slope of the Kuban depres
sion at depths ranging from 350 to 700 m. Near the
basin slopes, clay conglomerate is found at the base of
the Tarkhanian interval, which indicates the transgres
sive overlapping of Maikop deposits by Tarkhanian
beds. Northerly, in sections of some boreholes, red
clays of continental genesis (the North Ladozhskaya,
Uspenskaya and other areas) with thin interlayers of
microconglomerates and breccias at the base, which
are conventionally assigned to Tarkhanian deposits,
underlie the Tchokrakian deposits. In the terminal
upper Tarkhanian, a regional hiatus (Bogdanovich and
Buryak in (Neogene , 1986)) and erosion of sedi
ments on uplifted areas (the Yuzhnaya Andreevskaya
area) were established even on the territory of western
Ciscaucasia.
In the central and eastern Manych region,
Tchokrakian deposits occur with a hiatus on clays of
the Maikop Group at a height of +50 m. The deposits
are represented at the base by inequigranular sands
with quartz pebbles and limestone interlayers with the
early Tchokrakian fauna and pass up the section into
silty clays with jarosite and horizons of obliquely lam
inated coarse sands (Rodzyanko in (Neogene ,
1986)). Mollusks Lutetia intermedia (Andr.), charac
teristic of the upper Tchokrakian (data of A.S. Zas
trozhnyi), were found in sands of the upper beds.
In the western part of the West Kuban trough, on
numerous areas (Pribrezhnaya, Generalskaya,
Novaya, Chumakovskaya, etc), there were stripped
sandysilty members with inclusions of breccias and
poorly rounded conglomerates, indicating the migra
tion of sediments into depression areas along under
water paleoincisions, during periods of shortterm
falls in the sea level in the Tchokrakian basin.
The fall of the sea level was substantial at the
TchokrakianKaraganian boundary, which is evi
denced by the appearance of coarse terrigenous facies
and freshwater mollusks in basin facies (on the Belaya
River). Cobble beds (25 m thick), indicating traces
of a paleoriverbed were penetrated by borehole 8 on
the Sladkovskaya area at the base of the Karaganian
deposits, in the northern slope of the West Kuban
depression, at the boundary with the Timashevskaya
bench. Coarse clastic deposits at the top of the
Tchokrakian sequence were encountered also on the
Grivenskaya area (BH 59). A sandysilty member
(productive member I according to the nomenclature
of the Pribrezhnyi deposit) was fragmentarily traced
even in the deepwater part of the West Kuban depres
sion at the KaraganianTchokrakian boundary.
Karaganian deposits are more widely developed
compared to Tchokrakian ones. Their northern
boundary reaches the DonSal interfluve, comes to
the western Ergeni and Manych region, and has been
traced on the southern slope of the Karpinskii Ridge in
the Caspian region. Karaganian deposits are exposed
on the day surface in the Miotsenovaya Ridge at an
absolute height of about +70 m. The sequence com
prises pebble, gravel, and shell detritus, indicating the
proximity of the older shoreline. In the northern part
of the western Ciscaucasia, the Karaganian deposits
are composed of sandstones with minor clay and con
glomerate interlayers and coquina beds with Spani
odontella pulchella Baily and Barnea ustjurtensis
Andrus (the Kushchevskaya area).
The boundary of the Konkian marine deposits
passes along the Miotsenovaya Ridge in the Manych
region, along the Sal River toward Novocherkassk.
Konkian deposits are missing on the Kamennaya Balka
Uplift and the Sal Rampart, and the lower Sarmatian
deposits transgessively overlap the Karaganian deposits.
In the Miotsenovaya Ridge, the Konkian deposits occur
on the eroded surface of the Karaganian deposits at a
height of 0+10 m, and the base of the deposits sharply
plunges down to a depth of 100 m in the Manych
depression. A basal horizon made of coarsegrained
sands with pebbles, indicating the proximity of the basin
shoreline is traced at the base of the sections.
West of the Miotsenovaya Ridge, near the villages
of Divnoe and Priyutnoe, Kartvelian and Konkian
deposits were established in borehole sections at an
absolute depth of +30+40 m. The deposits are rep
resented by clays and sands with a total thickness not
exceeding 10 m and comprising the characteristic
mollusk fauna: Barnea ustjurtensis Eichw., B. ujratamica
Andr. (Kartvelian), Ervilia trigonula Sok., Corbula
gibba Olivi., Dentalium sp., Spiratella sp. and others
(Konkian).
Mangyshlak Peninsula, and Ustyurt Plateau,
Northern Aral Region. Tarkhanian deposits are miss
ing on the Mangyshlak Peninsula but occur with a hia
tus on the Paleogene or Lower Miocene deposits in
sections of the Ustyurt chink and are represented there
by a thin marl or coastal facies: pebblebed and sand
with Crassostrea gryphoides (Schl.), and others.
Tchokrakian deposits also occur with a sharp
unconformity on the Cretaceous to Lower Miocene
rocks. Coastal coarsegrained calcareous sandstones
with the early Tchokrakian fauna are known on the
TyubKaragan Plateau and in other sections of north
ern Mangyshlak (Khondkarian et al., in (Neogene ,
1986)). On the Ustyurt Plateau, the Tchokrakian
deposits are represented by coastalcontinental red
beds and gray clays as thick as tens of meters, which
accumulated under conditions of a sea basin.
The Karaganian deposits are developed on the
Mangyshlak Peninsula more extensively than the
Tchokrakian deposits and also occur with a sharp
transgressive overlapping on the Cretaceous, Paleo
gene, Maikopian, and Middle Miocene deposits. The
Karaganian deposits are represented by sandy
marlyclayey deposits of small thickness. Varna
(Ervilia) beds are developed in the facies of detrital
gypsum limestone but only sporadically (Khondkarian
et al., in (Neogene , 1986)). Kartvelian (Folada ) beds
are more widely developed than the underlying beds
and in places occur with transgressive overlapping on
Cretaceous, Eocene, or Oligocene deposits. They are
composed of limestones and sandstones (16 m). The
lower Karaganian (Arkhasheni) beds are less dispersed
in northern Ustyurt compared to the Tchokrakian
deposits and are represented by alternating clays,
sandstones, marls, and limestones. The thickness of
the deposits from the Karaganian horizon in the east
ern Caspian region varies from 70 to 100 m.
The Konkian deposits are still less developed than
Kartvelian and are represented by marls with lime
stone and sandstone interlayers tens of meters thick
(Khondkarian et al., in (Neogene , 1986)).
Basins of the Terminal MiddleLate Miocene
and Pliocene (Sarmatian, Meotian, Pontian,
Kimmerian, Akchagylian)
Northern BlackSea Region. Sarmatian deposits
are widespread throughout the whole of southern
Ukraine and occur with a transgressive overlapping on
Middle Eocene sediments, as well as Paleogene and
Precambrian rocks and the weathering crust along the
slope of the Ukrainian Shield. The deposits are widely
developed in the western parts of the region and mark
the freest contacts with the Carpathian basin in the
early Sarmatian.
The lower Sarmatian beds are represented in mar
ginal facies mainly by sandyclayey sediments 12 m
thick. In places, the beds, like the middle Sarmatian
deposits, occur with a transgressive overlapping on the
Ukrainian Shield and enter into the southern part of
the DnieperDonets depression. In the quarry near
the Village of Gubinikha, 50 km northnortheast of
Dnepropetrovsk, the lower and middle Sarmatian
sandylimy sediments occur at an absolute height of
+125+135 m (Ivanova et al., 2007).
Middle Sarmatian deposits are less extensively
widespread in the Valash trough in Moldavia, but fur
ther eastward the deposits occur with a transgressive
overlapping on most of the territory and pass through
the Ukrainian Shield. It is likely that the most shallow
water facies are eroded along the slope of the Ukrai
nian Shield. However, the presence of thin interlayers
with fossil plants and terrestrial gastropods indicates
the proximity of the shoreline.
The distribution of upper Sarmatian deposits
roughly coincides with that of the middle Sarmatian
rocks but does not extend to the northernmost bound
aries of their occurrence. Khersonian deposits often
exhibit an unconformable mode of occurrence with a
hiatus (Chekunov et al., 1976). In the DanubeDni
ester interfluve, Khersonian beds are represented by
antedelta and freshwater sediments, and easterly, they
are composed of limestones with Maktra, hydrobiides,
and freshwater fauna. In the basin of the Yuzhnyi Bug
River and further eastward, the deposits give way to
freshwater sands of the Balta Formation, correspond
ing to the Khersonian Substage of the Sarmatian,
Meotian, and Pontian (Nosovskii and Semenenko in
(Neogene , 1986)).
Meotian sediments occur with a hiatus throughout
the whole region and are less common there (Figs. 1,
2b). In the DanubeDniester interfluve, the lower
Meotian deposits are represented by clays, siltstones,
and sands with sea fauna, which alternate with brack
ishwater and freshwater facies and beds with terres
trial mollusks (Roshka in (Neogene , 1986)). Lumpy,
greenishgray clays with rare freshwater fauna corre
spond to the upper Meotian. East of the Dniester
River, terrigenous deposits 23 m thick, giving way to
organic limestones further eastward, are also predom
inant in the marginal facies.
Pontian deposits represented by the lower
Novorossian Substage occur mainly on the Meotian
sediments. The deposits overlie the Precambrian rocks
and their weathering crust only in the Krivoi Rog
region (Nosovskii and Semenenko in (Neogene ,
1986)). Marginal facies are represented by olitic and
coquina limestone. According to data acquired by
A.L. Chepalyga and T.A. Sadchikova (1982) on the
shelf of the DanubeDniester interfluve, sealevel
fluctuations in the early Pontian proceeded every 40
50 ka and reached 2530 m. The sea level rose four
times, and the second transgression was the maximal
when mollusks of the sea genesis Parvivenus widhalmi
and Abra tellinoides appeared. The sea left the north
ern Black Sea region in Portaferian time and then
remained within the current boundaries.
Kimmerian deposits were established in two
regionson the Dnieper left bank in its lower reaches
and in the northern Azov region (Nosovskii and Seme
nenko in (Neogene , 1986)). The deposits occur
below the base level of erosion and are known only in
boreholes. They are represented by ferruginous sand
stones with oilitic ore lenses and clays occurring with
transgressive overlapping on Pontian, Meotian rocks,
as well as rocks of the basement in places (in the Azov
region). The absolute height of the roof of the Kimme
rian rocks makes up 12 m in the Melitopol region.
Kuyalnik beds in the Odessa region fillin
Pliocene incisions, representing at present the
Khadzhibei and Kuyalnik lagoons, in which they
transgressively overlap the Pontian and Meotian sedi
ments. The beds are also known on shores of the
Tiligul lagoon. They were penetrated by boreholes at a
depth of 7090 m, where they overlie the Kimmerian
sediments without a visible hiatus (Nosovskii and
Semenenko (Neogene , 1986)). In the northern Azov
region, the Kuyalnik deposits also occur on the Kim
merian sediments and underlie a thick cover of conti
nental sediments (60 m).
VolgaDon Interfluve and Ciscaucasia. Sarmatian
deposits mainly overlie Konkian deposits but in places
occur with transgressive overlapping on continental
analogs of the Konkian, Karaganian, and Paleogene
rocks. The deposits are developed along the southern
framing of the Donets Basin, in central Ergeni, and in
208
POPOV et al.
the zone of the Karpinskii Ridge in the Caspian region
(Rodzyanko in (Neogene , 1986)). In more shallow
water facies, the lower Sarmatian deposits are repre
sented by micaceous sands, occur on Konkian rocks,
and are overlain by middle Sarmatian deposits. In the
Gashun depression, the lower Sarmatian deposits
overlie the Karaganian deposits with a clear erosional
hiatus and angular unconformity.
The middle Sarmatian deposits are more widely
distributed as compared to the lower Sarmatian and all
the successive rocks (Fig. 2b). Deposits are found up to
absolute heights of +100+120 m in the Donetsk
Basin and up to +140+150 m in the Kagalnik River
basin. On the Don Rivers right bank, the middle
upper Sarmatian deposits are developed within the
DonKumshats interfluve and exposed along the
scarp of the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, where they occur
on the Paleogene Kiev Formation and underlie the
Pontian, and more often Scythian, rock complexes.
The deposits are represented by gray, graygreen car
bonate clays (up to 40 m), grayishyellow quartz
glauconitic sands (2.535 m) with interlayers of light
gray, pinkish limestones with the total thickness vary
ing from 8 to 42 m (data of A.S. Zastrozhnov).
Southerly, orogeny in the Greater Caucasus, which
took place in the second half of the middle Sarmatian,
was accompanied by the formation of a band of shal
lowwater sediments around itsandstonecoquina
with conglomerate interlayers. Incisions and thick
beds (up to 10 m) of sands, pebbles and conglomerates
are found along the mouths and deltas of paleorivers
(Pshekha, Ubin, etc).
In the late Sarmatian, the fall of the sea level and
deposition of sandycarbonaceous sediments was
established on the whole territory of the Western
Ciscaucasia. The irregular thickness of the sediments
and abundant small incisions filled with sand and
coquina are characteristic of the northern platform
part. At the boundary with the Rostov salient, part of
the Sarmatian deposits is represented by boggy facies
with lignite and charcoal (>7 m), which were stripped
in the Zelenaya area. At the same time, in places,
upper Sarmatian calcareous sediments are observed,
even north of the middle Sarmatian deposits and
found in the region of the City of Morozovsk at an
absolute height of +140 m (Olkhovaya ravine,
V.G. Pronins data).
At the SarmatianMeotian boundary, on the
Timashevskaya bench, incisions, paleochannels, and
antedeltas of the paleoDonets River were formed,
which are traced from the Svobodnenskaya area (south
of PrimorskAkhtarsk) to the northern slope of the
West Kuban depression. Sandycoquina deposits with
inclusions of Eocene white marl cobbles were pene
trated there in borehole sections. Above the top of the
Sarmatian deposits, boreholes Rogovskaya and
Dneprovskaya (on profile IIII* between boreholes
Kazachya 1 and Timashevskaya 5) penetrated Meo
tian sands of different thickness, dated by foraminifers
and comprising interlayers of pebble and breccia (up to
35 cm in diameter). Based on the geological profile
and thickness variations, the data are interpreted as an
incision into the upper Sarmatian deposits and its fill
ing with Meotian sands (Fig. 3). The incisions ampli
tude made up some tens of meters. Up the section, in
the same boreholes, several pebble interlayers also
within the sand sequence at the PontianMeotian
boundary were traced. The sands were dated to the
Pontian by ostracodes. Genetically, the deposits are
likely to represent an underwater antedelta with sea
microfauna.
The deepest incisions confined to the Sarmatian
Meotian boundary were traced by drilling and seismic
data on the Beisug area (data of L.P. Avtonomova and
T.N. Pinchuk). The incision depth makes up 200
250 m, The Sarmatian sediments and in places the
whole Miocene up to the Maikop sequence are cut.
In the Meotian, the sea substantially regressed south
ward as compared to the Sarmatian, and its boundary
passed north of Rostov. In the Donets Basin, Meotian
sediments rose to an absolute height of +80 m. Upper
Meotian sediments are known on the Don Rivers left
bank near Bataisk. No Meotian beds, characterized
paleontologically, have been found in southern Ergeni.
South of the Manych River, the beds were penetrated in
boreholes near the Village of Divnoe and in the Salsk
region at an absolute height of +20+30 m.
The early Pontian basin again advanced far north
ward and flooded vast areas north of Taganrog Bay, the
Don River right bank, and Ergeni. Sediments are rep
resented by limestonescoquina and sands, in places
with clay interlayers. They again reach a height of
+100 m in the Donbas Basin and in the Kagalnik
River basin. The northernmost exposure of the Pon
tian deposits known in the Ergeni is located on the
right slope of the Yashkul ravine at heights ranging
from +35 to +75 m.
Deep incisions are traced within the Pontian
deposits on the Timashevskaya bench. They are proved
by boreholes in the Bryukhovetskaya (Cheredeev et al.,
1972) and Lebyazhya areas and clearly seen in the profile
in Fig. 3 (between boreholes Timashevskaya 5 and Chel
basskaya 40) as well as in the seismic profile (Fig. 6d).
According to the correlation with the nearest dated
boreholes, the incision corresponds to the middle
Pontian, though, a direct paleontological confirma
tion of the age is unavailable. The amplitude of inci
sion consists of 100120 m in these boreholes. Paleo
incisions in the Kushchevskaya area were traced right
up the Karaganian; they are filled with Pontian sedi
ments from 20 to 102m thick (BHs K27 and K29),
composed of clays with sand and coquina interlayers.
A sharp shortterm facies rearrangement, a strati
graphic hiatus, and the appearance of terrestrial gas
tropods at the base of the upper Pontian Portaferian
beds were revealed in relatively deepwater sections of
the Taman Peninsula.
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210
POPOV et al.
Northern Caspian Region and ForeUrals. Sedi
ments of the whole Neogene are known in the Caspian
Lowland, though, they are fragmental and overlain by
Quaternary deposits; therefore, coastlines there are
not traced to the Sarmatian. The middle and upper
Sarmatian coastal deposits were described in the Uil
Rivers middle course; they extend toward the Ural
Rivers middle coarse (BertelsUspenskaya et al., in
(Neogene , 1986)) and trace the far northward
extending shallowwater bay along the eastern part of
the Caspian region to the ForeUrals Plateau. The bay
of the Pontian sea basin also advanced there during the
maximal transgression (data of S.O. Khondkarian in
(Popov et al., 2004)).
In preAkchagylian time, a longterm hiatus with a
deep fall in the sea level existed in the Caspian part of
the basin, when a contrast erosion relief was formed
and continental variegated sediments accumulated
(see below for details). In Akchagylian time, basin
waters advanced far northward into the paleoVolga
and paleoUral river valleys and flooded vast regions of
the Caspian depression. North of the Obshchii Szyrt,
the basin abruptly narrowed and formed the Volga bay,
which was filled with deltaic sandyclayey sediments
(Staroverov, 2005). During the maximal transgression
in the middle Akchagylian, the basin extended still far
ther northward and flooded river valleys of the middle
course of the Volga, Kama, and Belaya rivers.
Mangyshlak, Northern Ustyurt. Lower Sarmatian
deposits occur with transgressive overlapping and a
hiatus on older, from Cretaceous to Konkian deposits.
They are represented throughout the region by basin
faciesshell limestone, marl, and clay; the shallowest
facies have not been preserved. The middle Sarmatian
deposits are of less widely distributed as they were sub
jected to more intense erosion. The deposits are also
represented by basin facies and occur either conform
ably on the lower Sarmatian sediments or with a hiatus
on older deposits (Khondkarian et al., in (Neogene ,
1986)). By the late Sarmatian, the sea left the Ustyurt
Plateau, and its sediments are known only in the Cas
pian part of the regionon the TyubKargan Penin
sula and in the South Mangyshlak trough.
The lower Meotian deposits represented by lime
stones are developed only in the western part of the
region along the Caspian coast (Fig. 1). The upper
Meotian deposits are more widely distributed, extend
to Western Ustyurt, and are represented by marls with
shell limestone interlayers.
The lower Pontian deposits are widely developed
and extend to Eastern Ustyurt. The lower, Evpatorian
beds are developed on Mangyshlak, mainly in the
South Mangyshlak trough, and in Western Ustyurt.
Odessan beds overlap them with transgression or over
lie the upper Meotian and Sarmatian sediments; the
beds are represented by limestone, marl, and clay
(Khondkarian et al., in (Neogene , 1986)).
Akchagylian deposits are of limited distribution
and make up small erosion remnants in cliffs of the
Caspian Sea. These are thin (0.510 m) marls and
coquina with small pebbles probably of middle
Akchagylian age.
INCISIONS OF NORTHERN RIVER VALLEYS
Erosion valleys of Maikop time are unknown on
the Scythian Plate and East European Platform; it is
likely that they were annihilated by the subsequent
erosion in the Neogene. Incised river valleys retained
in the northern Aral region, where they were covered
with drilling and studied, due to the rich iron ore
deposits that accumulated in deltaic conditions. The
deepest incisions are dated to the terminal Eocene
initial Oligocene and have an amplitude varying from
20 to 7080 m, relative to the Eocene surface (Vozne
senskii, 1978). The next stage of the deltaic ore depo
sition was related to the regression of terminal Ash
cheairykianinitial Solenovian time; however, erosion
incisions of that time are unknown as sedimentation
proceeded under conditions of a coastal plain.
Valleys of large rivers also formed in the terminal
Baigubekian on the north of the Chelkar trough and
within the Chokusin syncline (Voznesenskii, 1978)
and went on functioning in the Tchokrakian. However,
only their southern underwaterdeltaic parts have
remained, where the sediment thickness makes up
1520 m. The depth of valley incisions is hard to assess
on the basis of these data.
Data on the paleoDon River incision, which were
acquired by A.S. Zastrozhnov, allow us to assess the
fall in the sea level during the preTchokrakian regres
sion. The valley corresponding to the Zagista Forma
tion is deepened by 150200 m relative to the pre
Miocene surface (Fig. 4). The absolute heights of the
riverbed vary from 150 m in the lower reaches to
160 m in the mouth. In the paleoriver delta, the bot
tom of the sediments that filled in the incision abruptly
fell down to 170 to 220 m.
The top of the formation also dips southward, but
to a lesser extent than its bottom. For instance, the top
occurs at an absolute height of 75 to 80 m in the
main valley, and only by 10 m lower than this height in
the delta. This is accounted for by an increase in the
base level of erosion during the subsequent transgres
sion, as the result of which the formations thickness
substantially increases downstream of the paleoDon
River.
According to paleontological data, accumulation
of the upper part (mainly clayey) of the Zagista For
mation occurs in Karaganian time. The observed
reversed magnetization of clays is characteristic of the
upper half of the Karaganian (Molostovskii and Khra
mov, 1997). It is likely that the underlying thick basal
horizon formed in the early Karaganian
Tchokrakian.
The next incision preceded the accumulation of
the Balka Formation, traced on the same paleovalley
segment as the Zagista Formation. The width of the
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212
POPOV et al.
Balka valley varies from 10 to 17 km, increasing up to
5060 km in the delta zone. The absolute heights of
the formation bottom make up 80 to 90 m, rising to
20 m towards the slopes. An abrupt subsidence of the
formation bottom down to 150 to 160 m is observed
in the Yashkul basin (a segment of the delta). The for
mation top occurs at the same absolute height (about
0 m) throughout the whole valley, which is related to a
considerable increase in its thickness in delta sections.
According to palynological data, the Balka Formation
is assigned to the Konkian regional stage.
The preSarmatian fall in the sea level resulted in the
overdeepening of paleoDon and paleoDonets valleys,
which were filled with river sands in the Sarmatian. The
width of the early Sarmatian Ovata valley reached 12
20 km increasing up to 60 km in the delta. The incision
floor occurs at an absolute height of 10 to 20 m in the
main valley and plunges to 80 to 90 m in the delta.
The hypsometric position of the Ovata Formations
roof is noted for its great stability: the roof was traced at
absolute heights of +35+45 m. Judging from palyno
logical and paleomagnetic data, the valley was filledin
in the early Sarmatian.
In the terminal Sarmatian, the sea level fell by 200
300 m, and the partially dried shelf was cut by deep
valleys, which were filled with alluvial sediments in the
Meotian. A buried system of paleoDon riverbeds
(Burukshun canyon), which was traced over 150 km
from the Ergeni Upland to the Egorlyk River valley,
was retained (Proshlyakov, 1999). The incisions con
tinued functioning in underwater conditions in the
early Meotian as well and let the sandy material pass
into the IndolKuban trough (Fig. 1). It is evident
from the structure of the sandy sequences that the
sandy material drifted from three sides (from the
paleoDon valley on the east, from the Rostov protru
sion, and from the Caucasus; data of T.N. Pinchuk).
Lagoonalalluvial, sandyclayey deposits of the
Burukshun Formation with rare Congeria accumu
lated in the paleoDon mouth region. Alluvial sands of
the Yanovskaya Formation (up to 30m thick) corre
spond to the Meotian in the paleoDonets valley. Riv
ers on the territory of Moldova and southern Ukraine
deposited at that time vast trains of sandy deposits of
the uppermost Kagul and Balta formations.
The next incision of the paleoDon River took
place in the postearly Pontian time, which is con
firmed by the superposition of rocks filling it (Ergeni
sands) on lower Pontian marine sediments. The width
of the Ergeni valley varied from 15 to 100 km. Accord
ing to A.S. Zastrozhnovs data, the absolute heights of
its bottom vary greatly from 20 to 40 m in the
Gashunskaya, Zimovnikovskaya, and Yashkulskaya
depressions, as well as to +100 to +160 m on the Volga
and Ergeni uplands and in the VolgaKhoper inter
fluves, which was controlled by the general pattern of
tectonic structures.
According to data of seismic profiling, the depth of
the paleoVolga incision made up 700800 m in the
initial Pliocene and the incision is traced below sedi
ments of the recent central Caspian area (Leonov et
al., 005). The depths of the incision of the paleoAmu
Darya and paleoKuma rivers were similar. The sea
was retained only in the southern Caspian depression
with a small Kura bay.
The central and western parts of the East European
Platform were cut by a not very deep but, ramified,
river system, whose position was similar to the recent
one. The rivers carried voluminous material, whose
way was traced by seismic sounding and boreholes in
antedeltas. The paleoDonets antedelta was located
on the northern slope of the West Kuban depression.
A trough valley traced on the left banks of the
Khoper and Don rivers up to the Tsimlyansk Reservoir
was developed in the paleoDon valley in the Early
Pliocene. The valleys depth makes up 1245 km.
Absolute heights of the main valley bottom make up
+20+30 m on the north and decrease up to
3040 m on the south. Judging from the complex
of paleontological and paleomagnetic data, it began
forming in the middle Akchagylian and terminated in
the Apsheronian. A.S. Zastrozhnov distinguished the
Nagavskaya, Krivskaya, Khoper, and Kumylzhen for
mations within the Andreev Group. The first, second,
and third formations make up a downwardpointing
ladder of terraces of Akchagylian age and the Eopleis
tocene Kumylzhen Formation overlies them.
It is likely that the preKumylzhen incision corre
sponds to the base level of erosion in the terminal
Akchagylian. The width of the Kumylzhen valley
makes up 1235 km, the absolute height of the valleys
bottom position is +70 m in the north of the region
and +10+20 m in the south.
DATA OF SEISMIC PROFILING
The seismic material available allows the subdivi
sion of the section into several seismostratigraphic
complexes, differing in the pattern of the wave record,
and correlation with geological and paleontological
data permits the dating of the complexes. The wave
record pattern bears information about sedimentation
environments. The intracontinental Upper Paleogene
and Neogene sections more often exhibit the parallel
banded structure, but a clinoform, obliquely lami
nated structure was also registered in some complexes.
Obliquely laminated sequences were revealed within
the Paleocene, Eocene, Maikopian, Sarmatian, Kim
merian, and Quaternary complexes. These forms of
wave recording clearly fix areas of transition from the
shelf to abyssal parts of the basin, as well as indicate the
main directions of the sedimentary material transpor
tation. The results of sealevel fluctuations are
reflected in seismic profiles as erosion boundaries of
several orders, buried paleoincisions, and specific cli
noform peculiarities of superposition in slopes near
the shelf edge.
The correlation and interpretation of geological
and geophysical data makes it possible to reconstruct
the geological history of the region and show the envi
ronmental conditions, as well as the drifting of the sed
imentary material in two paleogeographic schemes of
Northern Peritethys for PaleoceneEocene and Oli
goceneEarly Miocene time (Fig. 5), as well as in a
series of paleogeological profiles, compiled along the
line of the seismic section (Figs. 6, 7).
We have traced the evolution of the sedimentary
basin since the Paleocene. The seismostratigraphic
analysis of deep parts of the section, preceding the Oli
goceneMiocene time interval in the evolution of the
Ciscaucasian depressions, shows that in the Paleocene
sedimentation history, we can distinguish at least three
major cycles of relative sealevel variation, with a sub
sequent shelf edge motion southward. Sequences of
the shelf and abyssal basin separated by a clear paleos
lope are distinguished in the Eocene seismostrati
graphic complex. The basins depth at that time was
1000 m. A vast shelf zone with a depth of up to 200 m
occupied the northern and northwestern periphery of
the basin, where gently sloping clinoform sedimentary
bodies, fixing the relative sealevel fluctuations accu
mulated. The amplitude of the fluctuations in the
Eocene is hard to assess. The East European Platform,
the Urals orogen, and the area of the recent Caucasus
served as provenances of the terrigenous material. The
deposition center of the depression was located
directly on the site of the northern slope and foot of the
Caucasus, where the thickness of CretaceousPaleo
gene deposits exceeds 3 km.
In initial Maikop time, at the place of the West
Kuban depression, sedimentation in the abyssal basin
was in progress, gravitational sedimentary bodies rap
idly covered by thick abyssal sequences accumulated at
the foot of the continental slope. The Lower Maikop
deposits incline towards the continental slope inside
the abyssal basin, and the shelf sequences make up
gently sloping clinoforms, thinning out toward the
abyssal basin. Areas of the Rostov salient of the East
European Platform, other parts of it, and the territory
of the South Urals continued to be provenances. It is
most likely that Caucasian sources of the terrigenous
material also supplied the basin with the material, but
it is not observed on the seismic time sections, due to
the complicated wave pattern of these sections and
recent deformations in this part of the section. The
depth of the depressions axial part was about 1000 m;
the depression opened into a vast eastern BlackSea
basin and probably was separated from it by a system of
local seamounts (Popov et al., 2004).
Profile IIII* from the shallowwater shelf near
the Rostov salient via the West Kuban depression
(Figs. 6, 7) demonstrates the most extensive changes
in sedimentation at the base and top of the Maikop
deposits, in the top of the Sarmatian deposits, and at
the base of the Pliocene deposits. The erosion bound
ary at the Maikop base is traced right up to the deepest
part of the depression. A major erosional unconfor
mity and a pinching out of a considerable part of the
sequence in the depressions northern slope are
observed within the Maikopian as well. Clinoform
sequences inside the Maikop deposits, which probably
begin from the boundary between the middle and
upper (Miocene) Maikop, correspond most likely to
distal parts of submarine fans, which accumulated at
the base of the abyssal basin slope. The depth of the
basin exceeded 1000 m. The amplitude of pinching
out was assessed by the time section at 200250 m,
with a maximum of 500 m. The terrigenous material
was derived at that time from the north.
From the terminal Maikop to the initial Sarmatian,
the depth of the sedimentary basin declined and did
not exceed 500 m. A series of unconformities was reg
istered in the Miocene, the oldest of which corre
sponds to the base of the Tarkhanian or Tchokrakian
and correlates with the preTchokrakian erosional
hiatus and incision into Maikop deposits in marginal
parts, which are traced on the seismic profile in the
Manych region and have an amplitude of about 200 m.
Unfortunately, the very marginal parts of the basin
are not represented on the available profiles. There
fore, overlying members of Middle MioceneSarma
tian deposits seem to be conformable.
An unconformity and erosional hiatus are observed
in the Karpinskii Ridge region at the base of the Sar
matian deposits. It is likely that no substantial falls in
the sea level took place during the early and middle
Sarmatian. Lower Sarmatian deposits are conform
able in the depressions axial part. In the northern part
of the West Kuban depression, a synsedimentary onlap
of Sarmatian deposits to the top of the Middle
Miocene deposits is established (Fig. 6c).The south
ern slope was characterized by relatively deepsea con
ditions of sedimentation. Traced on the south are
poorly expressed clinoform sequences, indicating a
topodepression, which existed at that time and, which
was compensated later by the upper Sarmatian
sequences.
The next unconformity and incisions are traced on
the northern slope of the West Kuban depression at the
base of the upper Sarmatian deposits, where incisions
had an amplitude of 200 m and in places cut the whole
Sarmatian sequence. The filling of incisions was mul
tistage, which suggests longterm continental condi
tions with a meandering riverbed.
Meotian deposits occur with unconformity and an
erosional hiatus on the Sarmatian sequences in the
northern slope of the West Kuban depression. It is
likely that the sedimentary basin deepened at the Sar
matianMeotian boundary, which caused a relative
fall in the sea level: a shelf edge with a typical clino
form structure is registered 20 km north of borehole
Yuzhnaya Andreevskaya3. No unconformity is
observed in the depressions southern slope (Fig. 6b);
most likely, a deeply submerged part of the basin was
located there. As the result of subsequent sedimenta
214
POPOV et al.
Fig. 5. Schemes of paleogeographic environments in the EuxinianCaspian area for (a) PaleoceneEocene and (b) Oligocene
Early Miocene (Maikop), compiled on the basis of seismic profiling. (1) Areas free of sediments, (2) area of Alpine deformations,
(3) areas of subsequent sediment erosion, (4) area of slope erosion, (5) area of clinoform facies, (6) continental and littoral facies,
(7) inner shelf zone; (8) outer shelf zone, (9) zone of shelf basins, (10) deepsea facies, (11) direction of clastic material drift in
abyssal basins, (12) erosion and erosiontectonic benches, (13) boundaries of facies areas, (14) position of seismic profile and its
fragments.
tion, the sedimentary basin was completely compen
sated.
The next sharp, relative fall in the sea level resulted
in the formation of deep incisions on the flat surface of
the Timashevskaya bench, which were filledin with
continental and lagoonal deposits, probably of late Pon
tian age. Deep valleys cut Miocene up to the Karaganian
deposits and reached a depth of 400500 m. Hence, the
fall in the sea level during the Pontian could exceed
500 m, which resulted in a complete draining of the vast
spaces on the Timashevskaya bench and the develop
ment of a deep erosional pattern on it. A Pontian seis
mostratigraphic complex occurs with unconformity on
the underlying deposits and becomes thinner in the
depressions slopes. The sea level varied throughout the
Pontian and Meotian as well, which caused a flooding
of the incisions and accumulation of lagoonal deposits.
A relatively calm synsedimentary downwarping and a
filling of the epicontinental basin with marine shallow
water sediments took place in the early Pontian. On the
Timashevskaya bench, previously formed incisions were
not only filled with sediments but continued deepening
in the periods of a low sealevel stand. It is likely that
new incisions were confined to the terminal early Pon
tian. The amplitude of falls in the sea level made up
50 m. By the middle Pontian, owing to a new rise in the
sea level, the sediments had completely leveled the ero
sion topography on the Timashevskaya bench, and the
upper sequences of the section exhibit a gentle dip there.
In the terminal Pontian, the downwarping in the
center of the West Kuban depression strengthened,
and the amount of sediments brought from the East
European Platform became insufficient to compen
sate it. Therefore, by the initial Kimmerian, a shelf
depression more than 100m deep had been formed
there, in which sediments derived from the north and
south, Western Caucasus began accumulating. This is
confirmed by a system of clinoforms on both slopes of
the depression. The relationship among the system
tracts of shelf bodies suggests several cycles of sealevel
fluctuations in the evolution of the depressionfrom
a low to a higher sea level. Traces of at least four cycles
of relative changes in the sea level can be seen in the
seismic profile. The amplitude of relative falls in the
sea level might reach 150 m.
In preAkchagylian time, (preKuyalnik), a break
in sedimentation and erosion of sediments took place,
which were related to orogenic processes in the
Greater Caucasus (East Caucasian folding phase).
The processes were accompanied by a sharp fall in the
sea level, after which the West Kuban depression began
subsiding and hence was filled with sediments.
Kuyalnik deposits occur with a sharp unconfor
mity on the underlying Lower Pliocene sequences and
in places cut them off substantially. Judging from the
data of the seismic profile, the truncation made up
100200 m. This indicated an abrupt fall in the sea
level and tectonic movements. A subsequent sealevel
rise and transgression leveled the relief of the surface,
and synsedimentary downwarping led to the accumu
lation of a thick (up to 700 m) epicontinental
sequence.
The sea left the West Kuban depression in the
Quaternary. Several major cycles of sealevel fluctua
tions, independent of the Euxinian basin were
revealed in the eastern part of the Ciscaucasiain
the Manych and TerekCaspian depressions, as well
as in the Caspian Sea.
The structure of the Cenozoic section of the East
ern Ciscaucasia is comprehensively described in the
works of N.Ya. Kunin, S.S. Kosova, and
G.Yu. Blokhina (1989, 1990). A thick clinoform
sequence accumulated in the TerekCaspian depres
sion. S.S. Kosova (1994) distinguished 12 clinoforms
in its structure, which indicate reiterative sealevel
fluctuations.
We have analyzed seismic sections within the north
ern and central Caspian Sea (Leonov et al., 2005;
Kurina, 2007). In contrast to profiles of the Euxinian
basin, the sections are distinguished for the erosional
structural unconformity available between Pliocene and
the underlying Miocene and Maikop Group deposits
(reference horizon A). The Akchagylianlower Qua
ternary deposits occur with unconformity on the
Maikop deposits in the western part, and they overlie the
CretaceousEocene sediments in the eastern part.
Miocene rocks were found only in the form of erosion
remnants in the northern part of the studied territory and
in the central Caspian Sea, where they are buried under
younger deposits and rose to a height of 150200 m
above the level of the preAkchagylian relief. The pre
Akchagylian base level of erosion equals 400500 m
there.
As the result of the fall in the sea level, a dense pat
tern of deep submarine and terrestrial canyons was
formed, along which a great quantity of terrigenous
material was transported into the inner parts of the
Caspian sedimentary basin. Thick clinoform
sequences of fans, accumulated within the continental
slope base and composed underwater parts of the pra
Volga delta north of the Apsheron Peninsula, as well as
(a)
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POPOV et al.
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Lovlinskaya 30
Fedorovskaya 3
Kubanskaya SG1
Grishkovskaya 3
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Medvedovskaya 3
Kazachya 1 Timashevskaya 5 Chelbasskaya 8
KyalnikAnthropogene
Kimmerian
Pontian
Meotian
Sarmatian
KaraganianKonkian
Tchokrakian
middleupper Maikopian
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
middleupperMaikopian
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Maikopian
Upper Cretaceous
Lower Cretaceous
K
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iddle Jurassic
Triassic
Recent geologic section
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0
1
2
Kimmerian
Pontian
Meotian
Sarmatian
KaraganianKonkian
Tchokrakian
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Eocene
Beginning of the Middle Pliocene (Kuyalnik)
Paleocene
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0
1
2
Pontian
Meotian
Sarmatian
KaraganianKonkian
Tchokrakian
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Eocene
Beginning of the Kimmerian
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0
1
2
Pontian
Meotian
Sarmatian
KaraganianKonkian
Tchokrakian
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene Upper Eocene
Second half of the Pontian (Bosporian)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0
1
2
Meotian
Sarmatian
KaraganianKonkian
Tchokrakian
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Eocene
Middle Pontian (Portaferian)
km
km
Eocene
Fig. 7. A series of paleogeologic profiles illustrating the Western Ciscaucasia evolution in the terminal PaleogeneNeogene.
218
POPOV et al.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0
1
2
Sarmatian
KaraganianKonkian
Tchokrakian
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Maikopian
Beginning of Meotian
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0
1
2
KaraganianKonkian
Tchokrakian
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Eocene
Beginning of Sarmatian
0
1
2
3
4
5
0
1
2
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Maikopian
By the end of Upper Maikopian
0
1
2
3
4
0
1
2
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Eocene
By the beginning of Upper Maikopian
0
1
2
3
0
1
2
lower Maikopian
Eocene
Paleocene
lower Maikopian
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Eocene
By the beginning of middle Maikopian
0
1
2
3
0
1
2
Eocene
Paleocene
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
Upper Eocene
By the beginning of Maikopian
0
1
2
3
0
1
2
Paleocene
Paleocene
Lower Eocene
By middle Eocene
km
km
Fig. 7. (Contd.)
the praAmu Darya delta on the eastern periphery of
the South Caspian basin. The Lower Pliocene basin
deposits are developed only within the South and Cen
tral Caspian basins and the Nizhnyaya Kura depres
sion. Their thickness exceeds 5000 m. The wave field
pattern on seismic sections for these deposits is char
acterized by a thinly lamellar structure, dynamically
well expressed. The inner boundaries are conformable
relative to each other and with respect to the upper
boundary. Up the section, there occurs a sequence of
Akchagylian age. It is separated from the underlying
productive sequence by an unconformity passing
through the reflecting horizon
2
. The wave field pattern
on seismic sections is obliquely laminated, clinoform.
Lower Pliocene deposits are missing from the
Northern Caspian basin, and the MiddleUpper
Pliocene (Akchagylian) deposits rest on Miocene, Sar
matian, Maikop, Paleogene, and even Upper Creta
ceous deposits. Their thickness amounts to 50200 m.
Akchagylian deposits are developed throughout the
whole Central Caspian. They overlie mainly rocks of
the productive sequence, but in places occur on Sarma
tian and Maikop deposits. The thickness of the
Akchagylian deposits varies from 100 m in the abyssal
part to 500600 m in the coastal zone of the Caspian
Sea. Several phases of the rise and fall of the sea level
during the Akchagylian sequence formation were estab
lished, which are marked by benches and complexes of
a low sealevel stand that appeared on the seismic sec
tions. The horizon
3
boundary, which fixes the maxi
mal fall in the sea level, represents the upper boundary
of the Akchagylian sequence. The sea level in the
Akchagylian basin varied from 0 to 150 m (Antipov
et al., 2005).
DISCUSSION
The data presented are still too fragmentary and
insufficient for a correct qualitative assessment of the
sealevel fluctuations in the Eastern Paratethys. Nev
ertheless, the approach, when the relative position and
absolute heights, at which sediments of transgressive
series occur, are considered, the amplitudes of river
incisions on the platform side are taken into account,
and structural features of sequences visible in seismic
profiles are analyzed, seems be the most adequate to
the posed problem. All the data discussed above allow
us to suggest only a rough assessment of the extent of
transgressions and the amplitude of sealevel fluctua
tions in the Late EoceneNeogene basins of the
Paratethys (Fig. 8).
Two transgression phases of the Late Eocene
(BelayaGlina) basin are registered when marine
facies are wedged into continental facies (Krashenin
nikov and Akhmetiev, 1998, p. 197). Based on nanno
plankton, the first phase is dated at the NP18 Zone,
and the second, at the NP1920 Zone. At the bound
ary between the phases, there was a shortterm fall in
the sea level (by 50 m and more), accompanied by
cooling and anoxic events marked by bursts of Uviger
ina abundance (Marzuk, 1992). The second sealevel
stand was higher; sediments of this phase occur with
transgressive overlapping on older deposits (the Man
drik beds on the Ukrainian Shield, the Balyklei beds in
the Volga region, and the Sumsar beds in the Fergana
region and Tajikistan) and overlie the major part of the
tectonically stable Ukrainian Shield with presentday
heights of 150190 m above sea level, pass far into the
VolgaDon interfluve, the Volga region, and Western
Siberia. The height of the Late Eocene sealevel stand
during the maximum transgression can be assessed at
not less than +150 to +160 m. These transgressions
and the following regression are undoubtedly associ
ated with eustacy as the basin was still rather open
prior to the initial Rupelian.
Regression in the terminal Priabonianinitial
Rupelian can be correlated with the base of the third
order cycle TA 4.4.4 of the eustatic curve with the fall
in the sea level of about 50 m (Haq et al., 1987). How
ever, this event was much more extensive in the East
ern Paratethys. Based on the shoreline retreat and
incisions in the northern Aral region, the fall in the sea
level in the Paratethys may be assessed at 80100 m.
The thickness of the layer removed in the course of
denudation made up 100150 m (Krasheninnikov and
Akhmetiev, 1996, 1998). The regression and a change
in paleogeographic relations were accompanied by
radical alterations in sedimentation, which showed up
even in the deepest basins (Tugolesov et al., 1985;
Robinson, 1995; Gillet et al., 2005), which was related
to the tectonic reconstruction, variations in seawater
circulation, submarine erosion, and sediment redistri
bution.
The subsequent eustatic transgression in the initial
Rupelian also clearly showed up when the sea again
flooded the DnieperDonets depression, the West
Siberian Lowland (Kurgan beds), invaded the Volga
region, and reached the Tajik depression (Fig. 2a;
Popov et al., 2004, map 2). We may judge by the abso
lute heights, at which the deposits occur, that the
transgression height exceeded +100 m, relative to the
current sea level. Though, in contrast to the global, the
Rupelian transgression in the Eastern Paratethys
essentially ranked below the preceding transgression
in the Priabonian.
Deposits of the maximum Solenovian transgres
sion with characteristic brackishwater fauna are
exposed near the VolgaDon Canal at an absolute
height of +80+90 m. The first, Solenovian, freshen
ing of the Paratethys, the shoaling of the basin, and a
subsequent regression are likely to be correlated in
time with the beginning of the next cycle TA 4.4.5.
Though, the next, most intense global regression in
the initial Chattian in Ciscaucasia (beginning of the
TB 1 supercycle), which was dated at 30 Ma ago,
poorly showed up in the Paratethys history. According
to nannoplankton and dinocyst dates, the boundary of
the Chattian base in Ciscaucasia passes within the
220
POPOV et al.
Fig. 8. The curve of quantitative assessments of main sealevel fluctuations for the EuxinianCaspian basin in the Oligocene
Neogene and its correlation with the eustatic curve.
Broken line: in Eastern Paratethys column, the curve of sealevel fluctuations in the Caspian basin after its separation; in Eus
tacy curve column, fall in the sea level in the Mediterranean region during the Messinian crisis. The amplitude of the fall in the
sea level exceeded 1500 m at 5.6 Ma ago. Numbers along the curve represent absolute heights of sealevel stand.
Morozkina Balka Formation (data of Ya. Krkhovskii
and N.I. Zaporozhets on the section of the Belaya
River in (Akhmetiev et al., 1995)) and is not clearly
stratigraphically expressed. In terms of paleogeogra
phy, the terminal Solenovian regression falls on that
time; however, its amplitude can be assessed at several
tens of meters, whereas in platform conditions, only
Maikop Group deposits underlying the Pshekhian
sediments were subjected to erosion.
The initial Chattian dated in the shallowwater
zone of the northern coast by the presence of Chlamys
bifidathe zonal form of the Chattian horizon A, is
transgressive in the Eastern Paratethys. Judging from
the distribution of the sediments, the rise in the sea
level may be assessed at 6070 m, and higher and
lower values are considered to be distorted by succes
sive tectonic processes. On the Turan Plate, the trans
gression reached its maximum in the second half of the
Chattianinitial Baigubekian, when marine sandy
sediments with Cerastoderma prigorovskii, Corbula
helmerseni occupied vast spaces in the northern Aral
region, eastern Aral region, as well as Kyzyl Kum and
again penetrated into the DnieperDonets Basin. The
sea had retreated by the terminal Baigubekian, sedi
ments in marginal parts gave way to coastallagoonal
with freshwater fauna.
The terminal Chattian regression is hard to assess
quantitatively. Judging from the shoreline retreat but
the lacking of incisions, we assume that heights may be
close to zero.
A new shortterm transgression took place in the ini
tial Miocene (the late Sivashian, Karadzhalgan, and
Kintykchinian) when the sea flooded the southern part
of the DnieperDonets basin, and invaded the eastern
part of the Kopet Dag foredeep and the Alai trough.
After a short and intense transgression pulse in the very
initial Miocene, the next Early Miocene basin was
sharply regressive, though, remained normal marine in
terms of hydrology and corresponded in time to the
Burdigalian transgressive basin. Based on the correla
tion of absolute heights for sediments, by the
Sakaraulian time, the sea level has fallen by 5060 m
relative to the Chattian transgression and continued
falling in the Kozachurian. As these sediments are not
exposed on the day surface beyond the depression zones
elevated at present, the absolute heights, at which the
sediments were deposited should be considered as neg
ative (below sea level).
The fall in the sea level in terminal Maikop time
can be assessed using data about the incision of the
paleoDon River, whose valley was overdeepened by
150200 m, relative to the preMiocene surface, the
absolute heights being up to 160 m in its mouth area.
Although A.S. Zastrozhnov dated sediments of the
Zagista Formation, which filledin the valley to the
Tchokrakian, the incision itself is likely to correspond
to a more substantial unconformity in the terminal
Maikop. In the Tarkhanian, the incision probably
continued functioning as an erosion structure. It is not
improbable that the fall in the sea level in the terminal
Maikop can be correlated with the eustatic regression
in the terminal Burdigalian (TB 2.2.3), and the subse
quent Langhian transgression, with the Tarkhanian or
Tchokrakian transgression. However, exact dates of
these events in the Paratethys raise heated debates:
whether or not the lowermost Tarkhanian is correlated
with the Burdigalian or dated at the initial Langhian.
Data on the height of the rise in the sea level during
the Tarkhanian transgression are lacking, except for
the overestimated heights of the occurrence of Toma
kov beds. Judging from the fact that the deposits are
extremely rare on the northern shelf, the absolute
heights of this transgression were hardly likely to have
been positive, with a subsequent decrease in them by
the terminal Tarkhanian, whose absolute heights have
also not been determined. The Lower Tchokrakian
deposits occur in the Manych region at an absolute
height of about +50 m, which can very likely be
accepted as a rise in the level of these waters in the late
Tchokrakian.
It is evident from the distribution of the sediments
that the Karaganian transgression was slightly less
extensive compared to the Sarmatian one and had two
peaks: in the Karaganian s. s. (Arkhashenian) and in the
Kartvelian separated by a fall in the sea level in Varnean
time. The available data on absolute heights, which the
sediments were found to occur at (about +70 m in the
VolgaDon interfluve), seem to be quite real.
The Karaganian transgression corresponds in time
to a high sealevel stand TB 2.2.3. But it was accompa
nied by a sharp change in hydrology and, probably,
represented a barrier transgression, determined by
regional tectonics. It is most likely that the appearance
of the marine fauna in the middle Karaganian (Var
nean or Turkmenian beds) was related to the eustatic
rise in the sea level, when the whole basin from Bul
garia to Kopet Dag and the Ustyurt foothills was pop
ulated by few marine species, absolutely alien to the
Karaganian endemic fauna.
The presence of the preKonkian (Balka) incision
of the paleoDon River suggests a fall in the sea level
down to 80 to 90 m and its further rise up to 0 to
+30 m (the level of the Balka Formation top). It is
unclear whether this regression took place in Varnean
200 150 100 50 0 m 50 100 150 200 250 300
+150
40
0
700
100
200
150
+80
+40
+30
+70
+50
160
+70
+70
+60
+80
+100
+160
+150
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
23.8
33.7
16.4
11.0
5.3
Berggren
T
i
m
e

(
M
a
)
Medi
stages
Stages of
Eastern Para
tethys
Eastern
Paratethys
Eustacy curve
(Haq et al., 1987)
Pontian
Calabrian
Gelasian
Piacenzian
Zanclean
Messinian
Tortonian
Serravallian
Langhian
Burdigalian
Aquitanian
Chattian
Rupelian
Priabonian
Akcha
Kuyalnik
Kimmerian
Pontian
Meotian
upper
(Khersonian)
middle
(Bessarabian)
terranean
et al., 1995
200 150 100 50 0 m 50 100
5.6 Ma
5,9 Ma
TB 3.3.4
TB3
TB 2.2.6
TB 2.2.4
TB 2.2.3
TB 1
A 4.4.5
A 4.4.4
lower
(Volhynian)
Konkian
Karaganian
Tchokrakian
Tarkhanian
Kozachurian
Sarakaulian
Karadzhalgan
Kalmykian
Solenovian
Pshekhian
Beloglinian
S
a
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222
POPOV et al.
time or at the boundary between the Kartvelian and
Sartaganian. The first alternative seems to be the most
plausible as Varnean beds are known on the platform
only in boreholes and in the Kopet Dags warped part
of the Turan Plate.
The Konkian transgression was not intensive and
reached its maximum in the second half of the Konk
ianin Veselyanian time. The data available on the
occurrence of the sediments at the absolute heights of
+30 to +40 m west of the Miotsenovaya Range seem to
be quite real.
The preSarmatian fall in the sea level was respon
sible for the appearance of paleoDon and paleo
Donets valleys, whose bottom is located at the abso
lute heights of 10 to 20 m in the main valley and
abruptly plunges in the delta down to absolute heights
of 80 to 90 m. The hypsometric position of the top
of the fillin material (Ovata Formation) is distin
guished by its great stability: it is fixed at absolute
heights of +35+45 m, which can be assumed as the
height of the initial stage of the early Sarmatian trans
gression. On the basis of a wide distribution of the sed
iments of this age, the middle Sarmatian rise in the sea
level can be assessed at +60+80 m, making higher
absolute heights of the occurrence of sediments to be
distorted by a subsequent tectonic uplifting.
According to seismic and drilling data, the uncon
formity and incisions with amplitudes of up to 200
250 m are confined to the middleupper Sarmatian
boundary. In the late Sarmatian (Khersonian), the sea
level resumed but remained unstable; incisions went
on forming on the shelf. The basin became closed,
freshened to a great extent, and its dimensions
remained extensive but in most cases did not reach the
middle Sarmatian sea boundaries.
Our colleagues from Central Europe correlate the
Sarmatian high transgression with cycle TB 2.2.6.
Then, a deep eustatic regression set in (the initial cycle
TB 3), which showed up in the terminal Sarmatian s.
s. (according to E. Suess) or in the midmiddle Sarma
tian s. l. (according to BarbotdeMarni, (Neogene ,
1986)), when the sea left the Pannonian and Car
pathian depressions. However, corresponding to that
time (10 Ma ago), in the Eastern Paratethys there are
coarser facies against the background of the still persist
ing middle Sarmatian transgression, and a substantial
fall in the sea level (by 200250 m in the northern slope
of the West Kuban depression) took place later, at the
boundary between the middle and late Sarmatian.
In the initial Meotian, a system of incisions was
formed on the northern bench due to a substantial fall
in the sea level. The incisions exhibited amplitudes of
200250 m on the Beisug area and cut deposits right
down to the Maikopian beds. Later, the incisions were
filled with littoralmarine and continental sediments
with the Meotian marine fauna (Proshlyakov, 1999;
T.N. Pinchuks data). At the SarmatianMeotian
boundary, continental facies with terrestrial and fresh
water mollusks were widespread from Bulgaria and
Romania to Eastern Ciscaucasia, even in facies of
depressions (Taman depression). The preMeotian
fall in the sea level in the Black Sea is also assessed at
200300 m by seismostratigraphic data (Tugolesov
et al., 1985; Robinson, 1995).
The next rise in the sea level in the Meotian may be
estimated at several tens of meters above the recent
sealevel as the sediments were of limited distribution
on the platform. It is likely that early and late Meotian
basins did not differ in the water level and extension,
and no appreciable regression was revealed in the ter
minal Meotian. A pronounced regression in the termi
nal Sarmatian s. l. and a smallscale transgression in
the initial Meotian have no analogs in the eustatic
curve, despite all their debatable dates.
The boundary between the Meotian and Pontian in
depressions seems to be purely faunal and is drawn by
the first appearance of highendemic brackishwater
benthonic fauna. The early Pontian basin became a
sharply transgressive one (Andrusov, 1961, 1963, 1964;
Popov et al., 2004, map 9) a bit later, at the level of the
lower Pontian Odessan beds. The maximal sediment
distribution in the early Pontian basin ranked next to
the Sarmatian basin, the height of its water stand may
be assessed by the height of the occurrence of these
sediments on the Ergeni at +50+60 m. As we believe
the Pontian corresponds only to the time of the
Messinian crisis (for details see (Popov et all, 2007)),
the transgression may be accounted for only by inner
reasonstectonic (the bottom leveling and afflux in
the strait part of the basin) and/or climatic (a positive
water balance).
A sharp regression and very deep incisions (an
amplitude of up to 500 m by seismic data) took place in
the middle Pontian (probably, in the initial late Pontian,
in the Portaferian, according to the data of the Taman
and Kerch sections). Drilling and seismic data suggest
the formation of new incisions on the Scythian Plate
shelf above the Timashevskaya bench (Figs. 3, 6d) and
in the Black Sea (down to 300 m (Tugolesov et al.,
1985; Gillet et al., 2005)). The continental break in sed
imentation and the appearance of terrestrial gastropods
are registered even in the Taman depression. Though,
the fall in the sea level was of short duration and hence
could not cause the formation of deeply dissected
topography on land. The paleoDon River incision in
the Pontian is assessed at mere a 20 to 40 m. After
this event, the Black Sea Basin has completely lost its
free twoway connection with the Caspian Basin.
The Upper Pontian and Pliocene sediments of the
Euxinian basin are confined to depression zones and
known on the northern shelf mainly in boreholes near
the recent Black and Azov seas. The absolute heights
of sediment occurrence are close there to zero for the
Kimmerian and 40 to 50 m for the Kuyalnik
deposits. According to seismic data, sharp sealevel
fluctuations took place in the Kimmeriannot less
than four cycles with an amplitude up to 150 m. The
fall in the sea level in preKuyalnik time is assessed at
100200 m by seismic data (see above).
The Kimmerian small, closed, brackishwater
basin in the Euxinian part of the Paratethys and the
Balakhanian (preAkchagylian) substantial regression
in the Caspian Sea corresponded to the global trans
gression in the initial Pliocene (TB 3.3.4), which
sharply showed up throughout the whole Mediterra
nean region. According to seismic data, the fall in the
sea level at that time is estimated at 700800 m. The
rise in the sea level in the Akchagylian basin varied
from 0 to +150 m with the maximum in the second
half of the Akchagylian (Antipov et al., 2005). Based
on the data of seismic profiling, estimates of Caspian
sealevel fluctuations in the Pleistocene have recently
been published in (Leonov et al., 2005); the materials
were used for Fig. 8.
CONCLUSIONS
The curve of sealevel fluctuations in the Eastern
Paratethys (Fig. 8) was compiled on the basis of data
on the spatial distribution of sediments, the analysis of
facies, shorelines, and river valley incisions during a
decrease in the base level of erosion, as well as pecu
liarities of sedimentation traced in seismic profiles.
The correlation of the curve with the eustatic curve
drawn by Haq, Hardenbol, and Vail (Haq et al., 1987)
and with sealevel fluctuations in the Mediterranean
region for the Messinian shows their similarity only for
the time of the most open paleogeographic relations of
the Eastern Paratethys, prior to the first part of the Oli
gocene and then the terminal Oligocenethe very
beginning of Miocene. The main transgression phases
fall on the first half and midLate Eocene, midEarly
Oligocene (two transgressionsPshekhian and Sole
novian), initial and the second half of the Late Oli
gocene, initial Early Miocene, initial Tchokrakian,
initial Karaganian and initial Sarmatian in the Middle
Miocene, middle and late Sarmatian and early Pon
tian in the Late Miocene, and Akchagylian in the Cas
pian part in the Pliocene. Amidst these transgressions,
both Eocene, the first Rupelian, probably, the first
Chattian, and Early Miocene were of a eustatic nature.
The second Early Oligocene (Solenovian), Late Oli
gocene (Baigubekian), and Miocene transgressions in
the Tchokrakian, Karaganian, Sarmatian, and initial
Pontian were accompanied by the freshening of the
water body compared to a preceding wide expansion of
halfmarine and brackishwater faunas and, probably,
were determined by the tectonic dam of the basin in
the zone of Alpine folding with straits connecting the
Paratethys with open water bodies.
The main reconstructions in sedimentation and
erosion unconformities in the Eastern Paratethys were
confined to the most substantial regressions. They are
fixed by incisions of northern rivers from the platform
and data of seismic profiling at the EoceneOligocene
boundary, in the middle? and terminal Maikop, in the
mid and terminal Middle Miocene, in the terminal
middle and late Sarmatian, and within the Pontian.
These erosion surfaces are traced by seismic profiling
not only on the shelf, but in abyssal basins as well.
In the Pliocene, the history of the Euxinian and
Caspian basins differed greatly. In the Euxinian basin,
numerous sealevel fluctuations with an amplitude up
to 150 m took place in the Early Pliocene (Kimme
rian), whereas in the Middle and Late Pliocene, the
Kuyalnik basin of a low sealevel stand (below the
current level) existed there. In the Caspian Basin, the
fall in the sea level equalled 700800 m in the Bala
khanian (preAkchagylian) time, and the level of the
Akchagylian transgression reached +150 m.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Program of Basic
Research The Origin of the Biosphere and Evolution of
Geobiological Systems (Subprogram 2) of the Presid
ium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian
Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 0507
00795, as well as the Program of Yu.G. Leonovs Scien
tific School (NSh 5508.2008.5).
Reviewers V.N. Beniamovskii,
Yu.B. Gladenkov
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