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Middle Miocene (Chokrakian, Karaganian) depositional environments of the Eastern Paratethys Sea in the southern Caspian Basin (Mazandaran Province, northern Iran)

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Abstract

We present a detailed description of the Middle Miocene (Chokrakian and Karaganian) depositional environments of the Eastern Paratethys Sea in the southern Caspian Basin. The Chokrakian comprises a 500-m-thick succession of marls and sandstones, termed herein Javarem Formation, which formed in coastal marine environments. The lower Javarem Fm. Developed in calm lagoonal settings, indicating frequent exposure under a predominantly dry climate and occasional formation of evaporites. The upper part of the Javarem Fm. Is characterized by mixed siliciclastic-carbonatic sediments with ooids of agitated, warm, hypersaline tidal shoals. Above follows the about 500-m-thick Vashi Formation, which is correlated with the Karaganian regional stage. The formation is characterized by an alternation of reddish marls with thick sandstones and gravel beds with terrestrial gastropods, ubiquitous pedogenetic features and occasional root horizons. The depositional environment is interpreted as a floodplain with gravelly channels of an arid to semiarid climate. The successions of the Javarem and Vashi formations capture the transition from the shallow marine Iranian shelf into the northern Iranian coastal plain around 13.8 Ma, following the onset of the Miocene Climate Transition and the coinciding global sea level drop around the Langhian/Serravallian boundary.

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(modified from Gradstein et al. (2020), Harzhauser et al. (2020) and Popov et al. (2022); see text)

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. Alireza Shahidi (Deputy Minister and Director General of the Geological Survey of Iran) for his generous and friendly support of our field work. Sergey V. Popov and Aleksandr Guzhov (Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) kindly provided rare literature. We thank Marco Brandano (Università di Roma La Sapienza, Rome) and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments and Hildegard Westphal (Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Bremen) for the editorial work.

Funding

This project (The biota of the Qom Formation (Oligocene–Miocene) in northwestern Iran and its biogeographic implication) was funded by the Dr. Emil Suess-Erbschaft of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological-Paleontological Department, Natural History Museum Vienna, Burgring 7, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Mathias Harzhauser, Matthias Kranner & Oleg Mandic

  2. Institut Für Erdwissenschaften, NAWI Graz Geocenter, Universität Graz, Heinrichstraße 26, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Mathias Harzhauser & Werner E. Piller

  3. Department of Geology, Faculty of Earth Science, Kharazmi University, No. 43, Mofatteh Ave., Tehran, Iran

    Jahanbakhsh Daneshian & Fezeh Asgharian

  4. Geological Survey of Iran, Azadi Sq., Meraj-Street, Tehran, Iran

    Tayebeh Mohtat

  5. Geosphere Austria, Neulinggasse 38, 1030, Vienna, Austria

    Mandana Peresson & Christian Benold

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Contributions

Fieldwork: MH, MK, OM, WEP, JD, TM; concept of the study: MH, MK, WEP; clay mineralogy and XRF data: MP, CB, interpretation and discussion of the results: MH, JD, MK, WEP.

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Correspondence to Mathias Harzhauser.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial or non-financial interests that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Table 1. Bulk mineralogy and clay minerals. (XLSX 10 kb)

531_2023_2379_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplementary Figure 1. a Geographic setting of the investigation area south of Ghaemshahr. b Location of the investigated sections. Map modified from Google Earth Pro (Image © CNES / Airbus; 2/21/2023) and © 2009 Esri (World Shaded Relief). (TIF 6755 kb)

531_2023_2379_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Supplementary Figure 2. Outcrop pictures. a Deh Kolan section. b Javarem section. c Javarem B section. d Tange Vashi section. e mudclasts with gypsum crusts at Deh Kolan (DK 27). f helicid gastropod at Tange Vashi (Ja98) (see arrow). All pictures were taken in May 2023. (TIF 37430 kb)

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Harzhauser, M., Kranner, M., Mandic, O. et al. Middle Miocene (Chokrakian, Karaganian) depositional environments of the Eastern Paratethys Sea in the southern Caspian Basin (Mazandaran Province, northern Iran). Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 113, 389–415 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-023-02379-2

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