“…The Black Sea mud volcanoes, diapirs and cold seeps have been a target of investigation of numerous marine expeditions with the aim of investigating the mechanisms of hydrocarbon-rich fluids seepage (Ivanov et al, 1989;Ginsburg et al, 1990;Ivanov et al, 1992;Limonov et al, 1994;Woodside et al, 1997;Ivanov et al, 1998;Bohrmann and Schenck, 2002;Ergun et al, 2002;Kenyon et al, 2002). Differently shaped authigenic carbonates (slabs, chimneys, irregular, blocky) have been observed and sampled from various sites of the Black Sea Basin often associated with microbial colonies (Woodside et al, 1997;Peckmann et al, 2001;Thiel et al, 2001;Michaelis et al, 2002;Mazzini et al, 2004).…”