The western Greater Caucasus: the evolution of a new sediment source for the eastern Black Sea during the birth of Paratethys

The Greater Caucasus is Europe’s largest mountain belt. Uplift and subaerial erosion of the western Greater Caucasus started at the beginning of the Oligocene, coeval with the birth of Paratethys and the deposition of the Maykop Formation. The evolving range formed a significant source of sediment for the eastern Black Sea as well as forming a barrier to more distantly sourced sediments from the Scythian Platform-East European Craton. Sediments were derived from the Palaeozoic basement of the range and from the inversion of the Jurassic to Eocene Greater Caucasus Basin. The age of reworked material derived from the Greater Caucasus Basin varies along the length of the range. This controls the composition, and therefore likely reservoir quality, of sandstones shed into the eastern Black Sea. The sandstones are intercalated with or overlie potential source rock facies that are restricted to the lower part of the Maykop Formation. Total Cenozoic exhumation across most of the western Greater Caucasus is less than ~2.5 km.