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The Great Caucasus is a northwest-southeast-directed mountain range more than 1100 km long, located between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. It represents an intracontinental tectonic system resulting from the Late Cenozoic structural inversion of a Palaeozoic-Mesozoic-Early Cenozoic back-arc basin (Dizi basin) in response to the convergence of the A...
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... The Triassic-Jurassic evolution of the study area is poorly known, but it appears that the Kislovodsk area remained a rather stable domain and probably a long-lived land mass north of the tectonically active zone [41]. Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous sedimentation took place on the margin of the Caucasian Sea that occupied an elongated and asymmetrical back-arc basin that stretched along the southern margin of the Scythian Platform [42,43]. This sea transgressed in the Early Cretaceous. ...
Many geographical domains possess notable geological and geomorphological features, which are yet to be characterized comprehensively in terms of geoheritage. The present study focuses on the Kislovodsk area, which is situated in the southern part of the Central Ciscaucasus (post-Paleozoic platform), where the latter joins to the Greater Caucasus (late Cenozoic orogen). Three geosites are reported from there, and their qualitative description and semi-quantitative, score-based assessment are offered. The Honey Waterfalls represent an example of river erosion affecting Carboniferous granitoids with uppermost Jurassic weathering horizon and overlain by Lower Cretaceous carbonates. The Ring Mountain is a natural arch formed as result of wind erosion. The Little Saddle is a viewpoint offering a spectacular, panoramic view toward the Elbrus Mountain that is the highest peak of Russia and Europe and an impressive dormant stratovolcano. The Honey Waterfalls and the Ring Mountain are ranked nationally (the latter receives the highest total scores), and the Little Saddle is ranked regionally. These geosites are diverse in several aspects, and, particularly, different geoheritage types and forms are established. The Kislovodsk area bearing the reported geoheritage objects is a part of the Mineralnye Vody resort area, which is large and important for the national tourism and recreation industry. The related opportunities and challenges for geoheritage resource management have to be considered.
... Несмотря на хорошую изученность [1,2,5], основные черты структуры Большого Кавказа остаются предметом дискуссий. В большей части современных моделей все сооружение считается результатом коллизии при закрытии Неотетиса [1,5,6]. ...
... Несмотря на хорошую изученность [1,2,5], основные черты структуры Большого Кавказа остаются предметом дискуссий. В большей части современных моделей все сооружение считается результатом коллизии при закрытии Неотетиса [1,5,6]. Делались предположения, что в современной структуре представлен не весь объем осадков Неотетиса, и что заметная доля сокращения сосредоточена в зонах субдукции, скрытых в сложной складчатости флишевой зоны на южном фланге сооружения [6]. ...
The problem of determining the width of the sedimentary basin at the place of a modern folded structure is solved on the example of the eastern part of the Alpine Greater Caucasus. The material of detailed structural cross-sections is used. Balanced profiles were constructed with use of a special method. The structural material is generalized within the "structural cells" of 5-7 km in size along the profile. The data of the reconstruction of the structure include the distance of the “structural cell” along the profile in modern and prefolded states, the shortening value of the cell, the depth of the basement top for prefolded and modern states, the amplitude of the uplift and erosion of the top of the sedimentary cover. The entire calculation material for 20 structural cells is shown in the table. The figure shows the location of profiles that almost completely overlap the entire structure across the strike from Transcaucasian massif on the south to Scythian plate to the north. A model of the modern structure in the volume of the entire sedimentary cover for structural cells, including the depth of the basement top, the amplitude of uplift and erosion of the upper part of the cover is shown also. The potential presence of large thrusts in the folded structure is discussed; the possibility of their existence is denied. The estimated initial width of the basin of sedimentation was 241 km with a modern total length of 167 km profiles, which gives an Alpine structure shortening of 74 km or K=L0/L1=1.44 times. The common accepted concept of the existence of the Neotethys ocean in past on the place of the Greater Caucasus is not confirmed by these research materials. (In Russian)
... Тетис закрылся вдоль границы Битлис -Загрос в позднем эоцене [Adamia et al., 2011], а раскрытие рифта ...
... Риони; разломы: САР -Северо-Анатолийский, ВАР -Восточно-Анатолийский, ТСК -тройное сочленение Карлова. При создании карты были задействованы данные GPS из работы [McClusky et al., 2000], информация о тектонике плит региона из [Adamia et al., 2011;Özacar et al., 2010]. Расположение разломов взято из работы [Avagyan et al., 2010]. ...
... На карту нанесено расположение регионального профиля (Л2) из работы [Medved et al., 2021b], а также профиля глобальной томографии (Р2) из работы [Koulakov et al., 2012]. et al., 2000], data on regional plate tectonics [Adamia et al., 2011;Özacar et al., 2010], and fault location data [Avagyan et al., 2010]. The map shows the location of the regional profile (Л2) after [Medved et al., 2021b], as well as that of the global tomography profile (P2) after [Koulakov et al., 2012]. ...
The mantle processes occurring in collisional zones give rise to the occurrence of many tectonic and geodynamic processes on the surface which is associated with a high seismicity level. Seismic tomography studies showed that beneath some collision zones, such as for example, the Arabian-Eurasian and Tien-Shan, the mantle part of the continental lithosphere delaminates from the crust, with a further separation and plunge into the mantle which is also called delamination. This paper deals with a comparative analysis of the earlier obtained different-scale 3D models for seismic tomography of the crust and mantle of the Arabian-Eurasian and Tien-Shan collision zones to identify similarities and differences between the inhomogeneities observed. The paper also provides a review of the numerical modeling studies. A comparative analysis of seismotomographic models in combination with the results of mathematical modeling and the data on tectonic evolution allows making speculations about the causes of delamination in the studied regions.
... It has grown in the compressed domain between the Eurasian lithospheric plate in the north and the Arabian plate in the south (some smaller plates and terranes are also involved in their interaction). The orogen inherits the Mesozoic-Early Cenozoic back-arc basins and island arcs [31], and its Paleozoic history reflects large-distance shifts of the Greater Caucasus terrane between Laurussia and Gondwana [32]. The geological setting of Mountainous Adygeya is described by Plyusnina et al. [33] and Ruban [34]. ...
Some previous studies have already highlighted the importance of Quaternary sediments as geoheritage, although the related knowledge remains incomplete and geographically biased. Unique Quaternary features are often overlooked in areas famous for their pre-Quaternary geoheritage. Moreover, the already established high-value linked to pre-Quaternary phenomena require comprehensive descriptions; therefore, it is reasonable to analyze the related Quaternary features (even if these are only locally unique). For the purposes of the present study, three localities that form parts of larger geosites, and which represent Quaternary sediments of Mountainous Adygeya in the Western Caucasus, are characterized. They are assessed qualitatively, with a general description of sediments and attention paid to their origin, potential scientific importance, and accessibility. The Rufabgo Canyon hosts colluvial megaclast sediments. The Dakh–Sakhray Confluence exhibits typical alluvial sediment where detrital clasts are mixed with rather numerous Fe-rich concretions washed out from the parent rocks. The Stonesea Range exhibits mixed eluvial–deluvial sediment formed as a result of the karstification of carbonates and the erosion of overlaying red siliciclastics. All these sediments are of interest to scientists because they can be employed for promising research projects, revealing the peculiarities of the local patterns of Quaternary sedimentation. The localities under consideration are geoheritage points within the larger geosites and are perfectly accessible. Aside from their use by scientists, these localities can potentially be used by geosciences educators to train university students in sedimentology. In two cases, the sediments are also aesthetically important for attracting tourists. Generally, Quaternary sediments should be considered together with the other unique features represented in the geosites of Mountainous Adygeya.
... Geologically, the study area belongs to the major orogen uplifted during the Late Cenozoic between the Black Sea in the west and the Caspian Sea in the east [20][21][22][23][24]. This orogen followed the development of the Mesozoic-Early Cenozoic active zone on the northern periphery of the Neo-Tethys, where island arcs and back-arc basins evolved [25][26][27][28][29]. Principally, there used to be the Greater Caucasus Basin, which was covered by the Caucasian Sea [30,31]. ...
Geoheritage studies have different perspectives, among which treatment of geological features in relation to particular areas and settlements seems to be promising for better local planning and tourism organization. The small town of Guzeripl in the Western Caucasus (southwestern Russia) experiences tourism-triggered development. Five localities, which are parts of two earlier established geosites, are found directly in this settlement and in its vicinity. They show representative siliciclastic deposits dominated by shales, which accumulated on the deep bottom of the Caucasian Sea in the Early Middle Jurassic. New field investigations allowed for the collection of information regarding the improvement of the geological knowledge of this study area and the reconsideration of its geoheritage in relation to the settlement’s needs. Particularly, the tentative approach for the functional assessment of the localities was proposed and applied. It is established that the localities represent not only deep-marine siliciclastic deposits, trace fossils, and specific palaeoenvironment, but also the structural elements (anticline, syncline, and fault) of the complex deformed domain. They differ by functional value, with two of the most valuable localities directly in Guzeripl, and all of them can be employed for the settlements’ needs. Geoscientists, guided student groups, and geotourists can choose Guzeripl to collect new data, train, and for new impressions. Importantly, geotourism based on the considered localities can diversify the experience of visitors, and it can be combined with and facilitated by ecotourist activities already offered by the Caucasus State Nature Biosphere Reserve, which is famous for its natural heritage. The study area focuses on the spatial distribution of geoheritage relatively to the touristic patterns.
... Geologically, it is dominated by Mesozoic sedimentary complexes (siliciclastic turbidites and carbonates), although Paleozoic igneous rocks and thick red-bed sequences as well as Precambrian metamorphic rocks are also known there [44]. The area represents the long-term evolution of active marine basins, which existed there in the Mesozoic [45,46], after which the area (together with the entire Greater Caucasus) experienced orogenic uplift [41,43]. The geoheritage resources and their current exploitation have been described in detail by Ruban et al. [14]. ...
The exploitation of geoheritage resources depends on their accessibility. The latter is usually established for geosites, whereas reaching the areas where geosites concentrate also deserves attention. Here, a novel, multi-criteria, score-based approach for assessing the large-scale accessibility of geoheritage-rich areas is proposed. The study takes into account various information about external and internal public transportation, road infrastructure, local services (including accommodation opportunities), and general settings. This approach is applied to the Russian South, where there are three geoheritage-rich areas, namely Lower Don, Abrau, and Mountainous Adygeya. Using new criteria, these areas differ by their large-scale accessibility, which is excellent in Lower Don and moderate in Abrau and Mountainous Adygeya. It is established that the co-occurrence of geoheritage-rich areas and popular tourist destinations does not guarantee excellent accessibility. The findings of the present study seem to be important for the development of optimal geoheritage resources policy, as well as for planning research and educational activities, such as the currently realized geochemical investigations and the regular field educational campaigns in the Russian South.
... These rocks are less deformed and form a kind of monocline. The entire Jurassic sequence was accumulated in a warm (subtropical to tropical), semi-enclosed, marginal sea (the so-called Caucasian Sea), which corresponded to the back-arc basins on the northern periphery of the Neo-Tethys Ocean [32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Differences in lithology ("soft" shales overlain by "hard" limestones and dolostones) and deformation style have determined local peculiarities of erosion and the development of topography. ...
Relief inversion is the result of an unusual interplay between landform evolution and peculiarities of geological settings. Recent fieldwork in Mountainous Adygeya in the western part of the Greater Caucasus mountains has enabled the identification of several inverted landforms. The Gud and Gudok mountains constitute a “classical” inverted landform with the top corresponding to the syncline’s core, which consists of relatively hard Middle Jurassic crinoid limestones. The Kabanya mountain, with the nearby branch of the Skalisty range, has a similar geological setting, although the hard Upper Jurassic carbonates that form the monocline and overlie the syncline also contribute to the preservation of the topographical high above the structural low. The northwestern segment of the Skazhenny range is formed of relatively soft Lower–Middle Jurassic shales, and its inversion results from the protection of the syncline’s core by capping Upper Jurassic carbonates. These landforms represent progressive, transitional, and regressive inversion, respectively. Their relative diversity and significance in local topography allow them to be classified as geomorphosites, i.e., important elements of the geoheritage of Mountainous Adygeya. Each of these has certain touristic potential, and a geotouristic route allowing the comprehension of these geomorphosites from several viewpoints is proposed. Climbing these mountains for closer examination may combine geotourism and adventure tourism. Additionally, the Gud and Gudok landform “symbolizing” the geodiversity of the study area can be used for branding local food products such as cheese, which is popular among visitors.
... The schists and flysch formations of the hinterland exhibit a very thin layering and form multi-scale folded complexes (thick-skinned tectonics; Figure 1a), with centimetres to kilometres wavelength "similar" folds along the crosssection line (e.g. Caucasus, [Adamia et al., 2011]) ( Figure 1e). Here, the basement and the sedimentary cover usually deformed together and there is no common detachment in such structures (Lacombe & Bellahsen, 2016;Pfiffner, 2017). ...
Conventional cross‐section balancing techniques based on layer length measuring can be applied only for foreland structures. To analyze complicated hinterland structure with numerous small‐scale folds, this balancing technique requires the reliable and detailed tracing of the morphology of any layer throughout the cross‐section, which is unattainable. We present a special kinematic method of balancing cross‐sections based "on the geometry of the folded domain" which enables the structural restoration of hinterland regions. We apply the method to restore the detailed structural section along the Shilbilisaj River, having a length of 26 km. We divided this section into 40‐60 so‐called “domains” each including 2‐7 folds. Our method uses the fold’s morphology to determine the strain ellipsoid, which describes the deformation of each domain and is used to restore its pre‐folded state. By combining the pre‐folded states of the domains, we reconstruct the entire profile, and calculate shortening values as K=L0/L1 (initial to final length). The overall shortening value for the profile is 4.49, incrementally varying along the section from 3.79 to 5.53. The comparable results of two independently performed reconstructions emphasize the reliability of the applied balancing method.
... This timing coincides with a regional plate reorganization (e.g., Allen et al., 2004;Axen et al., 2001), though as highlighted by Vincent et al. (2020), the exact timing of this reorganization may be diachronous throughout the collision (e.g., Ballato et al., 2011;Barber et al., 2018;Gavillot et al., 2010;Madanipour et al., 2017;Mouthereau, 2011;Rezaeian et al., 2012). The GC is a product of the closure of a Jurassic-Cretaceous aged back-arc basin, which opened north of the Pontide-Lesser Caucasus (LC) island arc during north-directed subduction of the Neothethys (e.g., Adamia, Alania, et al., 2011;Adamia et al., 1977;Cowgill et al., 2016;Gamkrelidze, 1986;van Hinsbergen et al., 2019;van der Boon et al., 2018;Zonenshain & Le Pichon, 1986). The bedrock geology of the GC is broadly consistent with this history, being dominated by Cretaceous-Jurassic carbonates along the northern flank, flysch to molasse within much of the core of the range with isolated exposure of Variscan aged basement in the western GC, and LC Arc related volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks along the southern flank (Figure 1, e.g., Adamia, Zakariadze, et al., 2011;Cowgill et al., 2016;Forte et al., 2014;Saintot et al., 2006;Tye et al., 2020). ...
... Gray bar throughout figure shows approximate location of hypothesized subducted slab edge (e.g., Mumladze et al., 2015). Also shown are estimates of the maximum crustal thickness along the swath line from Shengelaya (1984) a slab is observed in the western GC, possibly due to slab detachment beneath this portion of the range (Figure 1, Mumladze et al., 2015) or, alternatively, a fundamentally different pre-existing basin architecture in the western GC (e.g., Adamia, Alania, et al., 2011) that did not result in formal subduction and where shortening was dominated by inversion of former high-angle rift structures . However, the dominance of inversion tectonics in the western GC is largely inconsistent with more detailed structural observations that instead highlight the accretionary nature of this portion of the range (Trexler et al., 2022), consistent with a variety of broadscale observations of the geology of the range (e.g., Dotduyev, 1986;Philip et al., 1989). ...
The Greater Caucasus (GC) Mountains within the central Arabia‐Eurasia collision zone are an archetypal example of a young collisional orogen. However, the mechanisms driving rock uplift and forming the topography of the range are controversial, with recent provocative suggestions that uplift of the western GC is strongly influenced by an isostatic response to slab detachment, whereas the eastern half has grown through shortening and crustal thickening. Testing this hypothesis is challenging because records of exhumation rates mostly come from the western GC, where slab detachment may have occurred. To address this data gap, we report 623 new, paired zircon U‐Pb and (U‐Th)/He ages from seven different modern river sediments, spanning a ∼400 km long gap in bedrock thermochronometer data. We synthesize these with prior bedrock thermochronometer data, recent catchment averaged ¹⁰Be cosmogenic exhumation rates, topographic analyses, structural observations, and plate reconstructions to evaluate the mechanisms growing the GC topography. We find no evidence of major differences in rates, timing of onset of cooling, or total amounts of exhumation across the possible slab edge, inconsistent with previous suggestions of heterogeneous drivers for exhumation along‐strike. Comparison of exhumation across timescales highlight a potential acceleration, but one that appears to suggest a consistent northward shift of the locus of more rapid exhumation. Integration of these new datasets with simple models of orogenic growth suggest that the gross topography of the GC is explainable with traditional models of accretion, thickening, and uplift and does not require any additional slab‐related mechanisms.
... Geologically, the study area represents the northwestern segment of the late Cenozoic orogen of the Greater Caucasus; this segment is known as the Northwestern Caucasus. It is dominated by folded and faulted Jurassic-Paleogene deposits accumulated in the Caucasian Sea. which occupied a back-arc basin between the island arc in the south and stable platform in the north [20][21][22][23][24]. The Cretaceous mixed siliciclastic-carbonate deposits are widely spread. ...
Field investigations in the northwestern segment of the Greater Caucasus, a Late Cenozoic orogen, have permitted the establishment of two new geosites, namely the Ubin and Bezeps geosites. Both represent Berriasian–Middle Valanginian (Early Cretaceous) marine deposits with abundant trace fossils. The latter are attributed to the Nereites ichnofacies and indicate on deep marine palaeoenvironments (this interpretation challenges previous reconstructions). The geosites represent the palaeogeographical type of geoheritage. They are characterized, particularly, by high scientific and aesthetic importance, but restricted accessibility. Further geoheritage inventory in the central Northwestern Caucasus seems to be promising.
