Abstract
The Caucasus region was subdivided into two domains according to their Alpine structural patterns. The WNW trends prevail within the northern domain (the Great Caucasus), and fold axes outline a large arc within the southern one (the Lesser Caucasus). Sedimentary rocks of Late Cretaceous age have been sampled in Dagestan near the northern margin of the Great Caucasus, and on both flanks of the Lesser Caucasus arc. Directions of a prefolding, most probably primary, component of natural remanent magnetization have been obtained after treatments in the laboratory. The Upper Cretaceous limestones from Dageston yielded a mean paleopole at 74°N and 151°E, closely matching the Cretaceous-Palaeogene part of the Eurasian polar wander path. Declinations ranging from 353° to 37° correspond to changes of fold axis trends within the Lesser Caucasus thus pointing to tectonic origin of the arc. The inclinations for the northern and southern domains differ by 8°+3° We conclude that the Lesser Caucasus moved about 900+350 kilometers northward with respect to stable Eurasia since Late Cretaceous.
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Bazhenov, M.L., Burtman, V.S. (1989). Palaeomagnetism of Upper Cretaceous Rocks from the Caucasus and its Implications for Tectonics. In: Şengör, A.M.C. (eds) Tectonic Evolution of the Tethyan Region. NATO ASI Series, vol 259. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2253-2_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2253-2_12
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