Subsidence history, thermal maturity, and structural inversion of the Greater Caucasus-Kura-Adjara-Trialeti basin system of central-eastern Georgia

Gusmeo, Thomas (2022) Subsidence history, thermal maturity, and structural inversion of the Greater Caucasus-Kura-Adjara-Trialeti basin system of central-eastern Georgia, [Dissertation thesis], Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. Dottorato di ricerca in Scienze della terra, della vita e dell'ambiente, 34 Ciclo. DOI 10.48676/unibo/amsdottorato/10264.
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Abstract

This study aims at defining the tectonic evolution of a portion of the Caucasian region, in Georgia, which experienced a complex pattern of deformation events throughout Mesozoic and Cenozoic times. An integrated approach was applied to unravel the thermo-tectonic history of three inverted sedimentary basins from burial to exhumation. Additionally, this dissertation provides examples of structural inversion of sedimentary basins in response to far-field transmission of compressional stresses away from collision zones, contributing to elucidate the dynamics of stress partitioning during continental collisions. The Adjara-Trialeti fold-and-thrust belt in south-western Georgia results from the structural inversion of a Middle Eocene continental back-arc rift basin opened as a consequence of the Northern Neotethys slab rollback. This study quantitatively defines the subsidence and exhumation history of the Adjara-Trialeti basin, constraining its Middle Miocene inception of structural inversion. The western Kura Basin is a flexural foreland basin trapped between the Lesser Caucasus to the south and the Greater Caucasus to the north. This study constrains successive and competing episodes of flexural subsidence during Oligocene-Miocene times, followed by partial inversion through thick- and thin-skinned tectonics in response to continued convergence between the adjacent, oppositely verging orogenic belts. The Greater Caucasus results from the structural inversion of a Jurassic continental back-arc basin, but the timing of its growth is still debated. An across-strike transect in its southern central domain was studied, indicating that this sector of the Greater Caucasus experienced two phases of structural inversion during Late Cretaceous-Paleocene and Late Miocene times. Overall, the dataset presented in this dissertation points to a complex and episodic history of incremental deformation, characterised by successive phases of extensional and compressional tectonics which developed in response to sequential terrane accretion at the southwestern margin of Eurasia since Late Cretaceous times, eventually determining the current configuration of the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone.

Abstract
Tipologia del documento
Tesi di dottorato
Autore
Gusmeo, Thomas
Supervisore
Co-supervisore
Dottorato di ricerca
Ciclo
34
Coordinatore
Settore disciplinare
Settore concorsuale
Parole chiave
Greater Caucasus, Adjara-Trialeti FTB, Kura Basin, Caucasus, low-temperature thermochronology, apatite fission-track, apatite (U-Th)/He, zircon (U-Th)/He, thermal maturity, thermal modelling, structural inversion, far-field stresses, stress transmission.
URN:NBN
DOI
10.48676/unibo/amsdottorato/10264
Data di discussione
17 Giugno 2022
URI

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