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Upper Pliocene Acid Volcanic Rocks in the Upper Chegem and Lower Chegem Volcanic Highlands, North Caucasus

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Abstract

The geological, petrographic, and geochemical features detected in the Upper Pliocene acid volcanic rocks sampled in the Upper Chegem and Lower Chegem volcanic highlands provide evidence that the Upper Chegem volcanic rocks are not tuffs that have been subaerially transported from the Upper Chegem Highland; they came from several local centers. These results are in contradiction with the hypothesis of a pyroclastic origin for most Upper Pliocene acid volcanic rocks that compose the bulk of the Upper Chegem volcano-tectonic basin. These volcanic rocks are hypothesized to have resulted from the effusion of mobile lava flows. The overwhelming majority of the Lower Chegem, Upper Pliocene, acid volcanic rocks are of a pyroclastic origin, being among other formative factors due to precipitation and subsequent welding of material from short pyroclastic flows.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the reviewers for valuable remarks which helped to improve the material presented in this paper.

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  1. Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    M. S. Myshenkova & N. V. Koronovsky

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  1. M. S. Myshenkova
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  2. N. V. Koronovsky
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Correspondence to M. S. Myshenkova or N. V. Koronovsky.

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Translated by A. Petrosyan

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Myshenkova, M.S., Koronovsky, N.V. Upper Pliocene Acid Volcanic Rocks in the Upper Chegem and Lower Chegem Volcanic Highlands, North Caucasus. J. Volcanolog. Seismol. 15, 463–482 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0742046321060075

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