Cenozoic evolution of the eastern Black Sea: A test of depth-dependent stretching models

Shillington, D. J.; White, Nicky; Minshull, T. A.; Edwards, G. R.; Jones, S. M.; Edwards, R. A.; Scott, C. L.

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2007.10.033

Cited by 92 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Although a coeval opening of all domains of the Black Sea during Cretaceous times has been inferred [e.g., Zonenshain and Le Pichon, 1986;Nikishin et al, 2003], most studies agree that the Eastern Black Sea has opened later, during latest Cretaceous, Paleocene or Eocene times [e.g., Robinson et al, 1996;Banks, 1997;Kaz'min et al, 2000] by the rotation of the Shatsky Ridge away from the Mid Black Sea High (Figure 1) [see also Okay et al, 1994], leading to the coeval formation of thinned continental to oceanic crust [Shillington et al, 2008;Edwards et al, 2009].…”

Section: Constraints On the Opening And Inversion Of The Western Blacmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Odessa-West Crimean fault system limit a horse-tail splay, which is located in the continuation of the western margin of the Mid-Black Sea High (Figure 1) [Tugolesov et al, 1985;Finetti et al, 1988;Okay et al, 1994]. East of the West Crimean Fault, the CrimeanGreat Caucasus system (Figures 10b and 10c) is part of the large scale S-ward thrusting observed at the northern margin of the Eastern Black Sea, with total shortening values in the order of 30 km during the late Eocene-Pliocene [e.g., Shillington et al, 2008;Nikishin et al, 2010, and references therein]. This shows a contrasting change in thrusting geometries between the Western and Eastern Black Sea domains: an N-ward vergent system with an indentor located S-wards (Pontides-Balkanides) is replaced eastward by an S-ward vergent system with an indentor located N-wards (Crimea-Greater Caucasus).…”

Section: Lateral Variation In Shortening Along the Western Black Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Black Sea is the largest European back-arc basin (Figure 1), its evolution being controlled by processes active during the northward subduction of the Neotethys beneath the Rhodope-Pontides volcanic arc [e.g., Adamia et al, 1977;Letouzey et al, 1977;Zonenshain and Le Pichon, 1986;Okay et al, 1994]. It comprises two sub-basins, eastern and western, both being generally through to have oceanic or sub-oceanic crust in the middle part [Starostenko et al, 2004;Shillington et al, 2008] and are separated by the Mid-Black Sea High (Figure 1), which is composed of thinned continental crust [Stephenson et al, 2004]. Following its Cretaceous -early Eocene opening, large-scale compressional episodes are recorded all around its western basin starting with the late middle Eocene collision recorded between the Istanbul and Sakarya blocks [e.g., Görür, 1988;Robinson et al, 1996;Stephenson et al, 2004].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kinematics of back‐arc inversion of the Western Black Sea Basin

Munteanu

Maţenco²,

Dinu

et al. 2011

Tectonics

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[1] Back-arc basin evolution is driven by processes active at the main subduction zone typically assuming the transition from an extensional back-arc, during the retreat of a mature slab, to a contractional basin, during high-strain collisional processes. Such a transition is observed in the Black Sea, where the accurate quantification of shortening effects is hampered by the kinematically unclear geometries of Cenozoic inversion. By means of seismic profiles interpretation, quantified deformation features and associated syn-tectonic geometries on the Romanian offshore, this study demonstrates that uplifted areas, observed by exploration studies, form a coherent thick-skinned thrust system with N-ward vergence. Thrusting inverted an existing geometry made up by successive grabens that were inherited from the Cretaceous extensional evolution. The shortening started during late Eocene times and gradually affected all areas of the Western Black Sea Basin during Oligocene and Miocene times, deformation being coherently correlated across its western margin. The mechanism of this generalized inversion is the transmission of stresses during the collision recorded in the Pontides-Balkanides system. Syn-tectonic sedimentation in the Western Black Sea demonstrates that this process was continuous and took place through the onset of gradual shortening migrating northward. Although the total amount of shortening is roughly constant in an E-W direction, individual thrusts have variable offsets, deformation being transferred between structures located at distance across the strike of the system. The Black Sea example demonstrates that the vergence and offset of thrusts can change rapidly along the strike of such a compressional back-arc system. This generates apparently contrasting geometries that accommodate the same orogenic shortening.

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Section: Constraints On the Opening And Inversion Of The Western Blacmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lateral Variation In Shortening Along the Western Black Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Kinematics of back‐arc inversion of the Western Black Sea Basin

Munteanu

Maţenco²,

Dinu

et al. 2011

Tectonics

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“…Was this synchronous (e.g. Nikishin et al 2003Nikishin et al , 2015aStephenson & Schellart 2010), or do they relate to completely separate phases of tectonic evolution (Robinson et al 1995Spadini et al 1996;Kazmin et al 2000;Shillington et al 2008;Vincent et al 2016)?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main phase of the opening of the Eastern Black Sea has been variously interpreted as coeval with the Western Black Sea (Okay et al 1994;Nikishin et al 2003Nikishin et al , 2015aStephenson & Schellart 2010); as late Campanian-Danian (Vincent et al 2016), as Paleocene-Early Eocene (Robinson et al 1995Spadini et al 1996;Shillington et al 2008) or as Eocene (Kazmin Fig. 3.…”

Section: Geological History: Ongoing Uncertaintiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Petroleum geology of the Black Sea: introduction

Simmons

Tari

Okay

2018

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Abstract:The exploration for petroleum in the Black Sea is still in its infancy. Notwithstanding the technical challenges in drilling in its deep-water regions, several geological risks require better understanding. These challenges include reservoir presence and quality (partly related to sediment provenance), and the timing and migration of hydrocarbons from source rocks relative to trap formation. In turn, these risks can only be better understood by an appreciation of the geological history of the Black Sea basins and the surrounding orogens. This history is not without ongoing controversy. The timing of basin formation, uplift of the margins and facies distribution remain issues for robust debate. This Special Publication presents the results of 15 studies that relate to the tectonostratigraphy and petroleum geology of the Black Sea. The methodologies of these studies encompass crustal structure, geodynamic evolution, stratigraphy and its regional correlation, petroleum systems, source to sink, hydrocarbon habitat and play concepts, and reviews of past exploration. They provide insight into the many ongoing controversies regarding the geological history of the Black Sea region and provide a better understanding of the geological risks that must be considered for future hydrocarbon exploration. The Black Sea remains one of the largest underexplored rift basins in the world. Although significant biogenic gas discoveries have been made within the last decade, thermogenic petroleum systems must be proven through the systematic exploration of a wide variety of play concepts.Gold Open Access: This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license.The Black Sea, located between Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, covers an area of approximately 423 000 km 2 with a maximum water depth of 2245 m. Sedimentary thickness can exceed 14 km. The Black Sea holds an abiding fascination for petroleum geologists and is a true frontier basin with very few wells drilled in its deepwater sector. Abundant seepage, outcrops of potential source rocks around its margins, large potential traps imaged on seismic data, and a variety of potential reservoir and play concepts point towards considerable potential to reward the successful explorer. This volume brings together several geoscience studies (Fig. 1) that provide additional information about the origins of the Western and Eastern Black Sea basins, their tectonostratigraphic history, sedimentary fill and petroleum potential.The Black Sea and its surrounding regions have a long history of geological research: for example, it has long been regarded as the type example of an euxinic basin in which bottom water anoxia and free hydrogen sulphide (H 2 S) result in an absence of benthonic life and the preservation of organic matter (Wignall 1994). Somewhat ironically, the term 'euxinic' is derived from an ancient Greek name for the sea, Pontus Euxinus, meaning the welcoming or hospitable sea. Another ancient Greek name (probably derived from an Iranian nam...

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Oceanic residual depth measurements, the plate cooling model, and global dynamic topography

Hoggard¹,

et al. 2017

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Convective circulation of the mantle causes deflections of the Earth's surface that vary as a function of space and time. Accurate measurements of this dynamic topography are complicated by the need to isolate and remove other sources of elevation, arising from flexure and lithospheric isostasy. The complex architecture of continental lithosphere means that measurement of present‐day dynamic topography is more straightforward in the oceanic realm. Here we present an updated methodology for calculating oceanic residual bathymetry, which is a proxy for dynamic topography. Corrections are applied that account for the effects of sedimentary loading and compaction, for anomalous crustal thickness variations, for subsidence of oceanic lithosphere as a function of age and for non‐hydrostatic geoid height variations. Errors are formally propagated to estimate measurement uncertainties. We apply this methodology to a global database of 1936 seismic surveys located on oceanic crust and generate 2297 spot measurements of residual topography, including 1161 with crustal corrections. The resultant anomalies have amplitudes of ±1 km and wavelengths of ∼1000 km. Spectral analysis of our database using cross‐validation demonstrates that spherical harmonics up to and including degree 30 (i.e., wavelengths down to 1300 km) are required to accurately represent these observations. Truncation of the expansion at a lower maximum degree erroneously increases the amplitude of inferred long‐wavelength dynamic topography. There is a strong correlation between our observations and free‐air gravity anomalies, magmatism, ridge seismicity, vertical motions of adjacent rifted margins, and global tomographic models. We infer that shorter wavelength components of the observed pattern of dynamic topography may be attributable to the presence of thermal anomalies within the shallow asthenospheric mantle.

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Cenozoic evolution of the eastern Black Sea: A test of depth-dependent stretching models

Cited by 92 publications

References 51 publications

Kinematics of back‐arc inversion of the Western Black Sea Basin

Kinematics of back‐arc inversion of the Western Black Sea Basin

Petroleum geology of the Black Sea: introduction

Oceanic residual depth measurements, the plate cooling model, and global dynamic topography

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