POPADYUK, I. V., and S. E. SMIRNOV, Ukrainian State Geological Research Institute, Lvov, Ukraine

ABSTRACT: Crimean Orogene: A Nappe Interpretation

On the International Tectonic Map of Europe, the Crimean orogene presents a structure that has no analog in the Alpine orogenic belt. The Crimean mountain system lacks nappe structures of Alpine age. Its geosynclinal folding deformation is restricted to the Tavria flysch formation, previously dated as Triassic-Liassic. Therefore, the Crimean orogene was considered as the Kimmerian tectonotype.

In our model, the Crimean orogene is characterized by nappe structures. The Yayla nappe is composed of Upper Jurassic and Neocomian sediments and is located below the Tavrian nappe, which consists of the Tavrian flysch formation. We dated the age of the Tavrian formation as Hauterivian-Aptian on the basis of published ammonite finds in the stratotype section. Nappe displacements are dated roughly as Austrian (Albian) by the occurrence of upper-middle Albian sediments below the nappes and the Upper Cretaceous age of their neoautochthonous sedimentary cover. These north-vergent nappes have a horizontal displacement of about 20 km.

In the eastern part of the orogene, these nappe structures were overprinted by Laramide-Savic (Paleocene and end Oligocene-early Miocene) deformations, as evident in the Kerch peninsula. The nature of these late deformations is not clear.

The hydrocarbon potential of the prenapping autochthonous series has not yet been studied. Exploration for oil and gas in the Crimean sector of the Black Sea must take the suggested model and its implications into account.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90990©1993 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, The Hague, Netherlands, October 17-20, 1993.