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On the Time of the Last Connection between the Caspian and Black Seas during the Late Pleistocene

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Abstract

A comparative analysis of sedimentary sections from the North Black Sea and the North and Middle Caspian Sea has been performed. The sediments identified in the Black Sea are of the New Black Sea, Old Black Sea, and Neoeuxinian; the features of their lithological composition were revealed and their 14C age are established. Shallow- and deep-water New Caspian, Mangyshlakian, Upper Khvalynian, Lower Khvalynian, Atelian, and Hyrkanian sediments have been identified and correlated in the Caspian Sea. As a result, the identical structures of the continuous deep-water sedimentary sections of the compared water basin have been revealed and the synchronicity of the Neoeuxinian and late Khvalynian sediments established. These data suggest the absence of a connection between the Neoeuxinian and early Khvalynian marine basins.

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Funding

The work was carried out in the framework of the State Assignment (project entitled The Dynamics of the Sedimentary Rock-Forming Processes (Modern and in the Geological Past) under Different Structural-Geological Settings and their Evolution (2016–2025)”). The malacofaunistic studies were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-27-00164 entitled Natural Evolution in the Ponto-Caspian Region under the Conditions of the Last Interglacial).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    V. M. Sorokin, T. A. Yanina & V. L. Luksha

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  1. V. M. Sorokin
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  2. T. A. Yanina
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  3. V. L. Luksha
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Correspondence to V. M. Sorokin, T. A. Yanina or V. L. Luksha.

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Translated by N. Astafiev

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Sorokin, V.M., Yanina, T.A. & Luksha, V.L. On the Time of the Last Connection between the Caspian and Black Seas during the Late Pleistocene. Moscow Univ. Geol. Bull. 78, 254–264 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0145875223020114

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