Cretaceous–eocene flysch of the sochi synclinorium (western caucasus): sources of clastic material based on the results of U–Th–Pb isotope dating of detrital zircons

Abstract

The first results of U–Th–Pb isotope dating of detrital zircons (dZr, N = 130, n = 91) from the Middle Danian sandstones (63.9–65.3 Ma) of the Cretaceous–Eocene Novorossiysk–Anapa flysch, widely developed in the Sochi synclinorium (Southern slope of the Western Caucasus) are presented. The maximum dZr age is 2973 ± 12 Ma, the minimum dZr age is 318 ± 3 Ma; weighted average age of the 4 youngest dZr ~ 322 ± 7 Ma. There are no signs of the destruction products of the Jurassic magmatites involved in the structure of the Greater Caucasus and the Crimean Mountains into the sedimentary basin, in which the Novorossiysk-Anapa flysch was formed. A high degree of similarity between the provenance signals of the Danian sandstones from the Novorossiysk-Anapa flysch, some Paleogene-Neogene and Early Quaternary (Early Pleistocene) sandstones of the Western Caucasus and Western Cis-Caucasia, red-colored Upper Permian and Lower Triassic sandstones of the Moscow syneclise, as well as Late Quaternary alluvium of the lower reaches of the draining vast expanses of the Russian plate Don and Volga rivers has been revealed. On this basis, it was concluded that in the Middle Danian there were no eroded mountain structures of the Greater Caucasus and Crimea, and the main volume of detrital material composing the Novorossiysk-Anapa flysch was formed due to the recycling of Permian-Triassic and younger strata of the Russian Plate.