Evolution of an active continental margin as exemplified by the Alpine history of the Caucasus

A plate-tectonics model of the Alpine evolution of the Caucasus is suggested. According to the model, in the Jurassic-Neocomian the Caucasian territory comprised the shelf of the East European platform, the marginal sea of the Great Caucasus, the Pontian-Transcaucasian island arc, the Anatolian-Minor Caucasian oceanic basin (Tethys) and the Iranian-Turkish microcontinent. Along the northern margin of the oceanic basin a convergent plate juncture extended. Part of the Caucasus, situated north of this plate boundary, represented the West Pacific-type active margin of the East European platform. In the Middle Cretaceous the Iranian-Turkish microcontinent collided with the Pontian-Transcaucasian island arc and as a result the Transcaucasian-Minor Asian continental block originated. In the central part of the latter an extensive Paleogene andesitic belt formed, with the Black Sea-Adjara-Trialetian and Talysh-South Caspian basaltic rift troughs on its rear (northern) side (incipient Black Sea and South Caspian basins). Major plate boundary shifted south, into the Zagros-Taurus basin, though the Anatolian-Minor Caucasian suture zone remained mobile in the Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene. From the Oligocene, under conditions of ongoing convergence of the Eurasian and Afro-Arabian continental blocks, the present-day intracontinental mountainous foldbelt has developed.