Print this pagePermo-Carboniferous of Central Ural (Russia) An example of Reef Mounds Development in a Foreland Setting
BOISSEAU, THIERRY, N. PROUST E. VENNIN, and B. CHUVASHOV
The foreland basin of Central Ural formed during Carboniferous and Permian times. A carbonate platform developed during the flexural depression and the migration of the peripheral bulge due to the thrust. The reef builders evolve through time with successively: (1) algae and pseudo-algae banks during the middle Carboniferous; (2) Phylloid algae and Palaeoaplysina banks during the late Carboniferous; (3) Bryozoan and Tubiphytes giant reef mounds during the Asselian-Sakmarian stages; and (4) Bryozoan, sponges and Phylloid algae banks during the Artinskian.
The Kungurian stage corresponds to drastic environmental changes due to the closure of the Uralian sea.
The several hundred meters thick reef mound observed in Sterlitamak area represent an outcrop analog of numerous hydrocarbon fields of the Timan-Pechora, the Volga-Ural and precaspian basins.