Deep structure and selected aspects of the oil and gas potential of the southern seas of Russia

Regional deep seismic sounding—refracted wave seismic profiles across the Sea of Azov, the Caspian, and the Black seas carried out by the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, in 1957–2002 with the use ocean bottom seismographs—provided information on the deep structure of the regions studied. Multichannel seismic profiling helped to refine the structure of the sedimentary cover. A combined interpretation of the reflection and refraction data allowed us to construct structural-lithological models of the southern seas of Russia and to estimate their oil and gas potential.