Tectonic setting of Georgia–Eastern Black Sea: a review

Authors: A. ADAMIA, T. G. CHKHOTUA, T. T. GAVTADZE, Z. A. LEBANIDZE, D. P. ZAKARAIA, N. D. LURSMANASHVILI, N. G. SADRADZE, & G. S. ZAKARIADZE

During the Palaeozoic–Early Cenozoic, Georgia and adjacent areas represented part of the Tethys ocean and its northern  margin. At the  pre-collisional stage, systems of island-arc and back-arc structures can be distinguished along the southern margin  of the  East European continent and the oceanic basin. Several events  of supra-subduction magmatic activity and obduction of oceanic crust fragments took place during the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic  and  Early Cenozoic.

New results obtained  through the International Research  Group and  DARIUS  projects can be used  to build a base for  more  precise tectonic zoning  of the southern Caucasus  and adjacent areas, the correlation of these zones and better substantiated Mesozoic–Early Cenozoic palaeotectonic reconstructions of the  region.  The final closure  of the oceanic and back-arc basins and the formation of the  present  day structure of Georgia  and adjacent  countries occurred in the Late Cenozoic. The collision between the Africa–Arabian and Eurasian plates caused inversion of the  relief and,  in place of the intra-arc and back-arc basins, the mountain fold–thrust belts of the Great and  Lesser Caucasus were formed with the Transcaucasian  intermontane depression between them. The marine basins of Georgia  were  replaced by euxinic basins and, later, by con- tinental basins  with  subaerial sedimentation and volcanism.