Regional Factors Controlling the Type of Pliocene Deposits in the Southeastern Caspian Basin, NE Iran: Implication for Tectono-stratigraphic Analysis

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Petroleum Geology, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Geology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

3 Department of Geology, Khazar Exploration and Production Company (KEPCO), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

 
 Providing information about the role of the major elements controlling the type of Pliocene deposits in the south­eastern part of the Caspian Basin by assessing regional and global parameters is very important to demonstrate the relationship between the tectono-sedimentary evolution and facies distribution of the area, and thereby discover the fields with the best stratigraphic and structural traps potential. Also, there is an indispensable query: which factors had controlled the the Type of Pliocene Deposits in the Southeastern Caspian Basin, NE Iran? In the present research, the Cheleken and Akchagyl formations with the Pliocene age, as the most potent constituents of reservoir intervals in the Caspian Basin, were investigated by considering facies types and the factors that controlled their variations. This research was done based on field observations, microscopy studies, and 2D seismic interpretations. Interpretation of facies and correlation along three surface stratigraphic sections and eleven exploration wells clearly justify the role of tectono-sedimentary agents controlling the distribution of the Pliocene formations in the Gorgan and Gonbad plains. Furthermore, the thickness of the Cheleken Formation increases towards the South Caspian Basin (SCB), and lithologically, it is mainly composed of conglomerates and gravely sandstones at the marginal parts grading into the silty claystone to marl facies towards the SCB. In addition, deposition of the Cheleken was accompanied by sea-level falling, and rapid subsidence resulted from the uplift and subsequent erosion of the Alborz and Kopet Dagh moun­tains. In contrast, the Akchagyl Formation represents a relatively uniform thickness, and lithologically, it is consists of high-energy carbonate facies in the northeastern Gonbad-e Kavous area changing into the claystone and siltstone facies towards eastern parts of the South Caspian Basin. Ultimately, according to this study, it is found out that Akch­agyl Formation records a major regional transgression and reconnection of the study area to the global oceans, which was confirmed by the presence of marine biota and flat geometry pattern of the sedimentary basin.
 

Keywords

References

Ali-zade A A, Guliyev I S, Ateava E Z (1995) Neogene stratigraphy and sedimentology in eastern-Azarbaijan observation and surface implications, In: AAPG Bulletin, CONF-950995, 79. ##
Reynolds A D, Simmons M D, Bowman M B, Henton J (1998) Implications of outcrop geology for reservoirs in the Neogene Productive Series: Apsheron Peninsula, Azerbaijan,” AAPG Bulletin, 82(1), 25-49. ##
Haidari K, Amini A, Aleali M, Solgi A (2019) Distribution pattern of Ahwaz sandstone and Kalhur evaporate members of Asmari Formation in Dezful Embayment and Abadan plain, a basis for stratigraphic traps studies, Geopersia, 1-12. ##
Priestley K, Baker C, Jackson J (1994) Implications of earthquake focal mechanism data for the active tectonics of the South Caspian Basin and surrounding regions, Geophysical Journal International, 118(1), 111-141. ##
Ovsyuchenko A N, Korzhenkov A M, Larkov A S, Marahanov A V, Rogozhin E A (2017) New findings on the sources of strong earthquakes in Kerch Peninsula based on paleoseismological data, Dokl Earth Sci 472(1), 53-56. ##
Ehsani M (2006) Lithofacies and biofacies of the Akchagyl stratigraphic sequence in Northeast of Gonbad-e Kavous, M.Sc. thesis, Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran, Tehran, 91 (in Persian). ##
van Back C G C, Vasiliev I, Stoica M, Kuiper K F, Forte A M, Aliyeva E Krijgsman W (2013) A magnetostratigraphic time frame for PlioPleistocene transgressions in the South Caspian Basin, Azerbaijan Glob Planet Change, 103, 119-134.
[8] Vatan A, Yassini I (1969) Les grandes lignes de la geologie de Alborz Central ands Ia region de Tehran et la Plaine de la Caspienne, Revue Institut, Francais du Petrol, 24, 7-8. ##
[9] Aghanabati A (2004) Geology of Iran (1st ed.), Geological Survey of Iran (GSI) Publications, Tehran, 1-582. (in Persian).
Aghanabati A, Rezaei A (2008) Equivalent of litho-stratigraphic units of Iran in the major structural-sedimentary zones, Geological Survey of Iran (GSI), Tehran, 1-7. (in Persian). ##
Robert Alexandra M M, Letouzey J, Kavoosi M A, Sherkati Sh, Müller C (2014) Structural evolution of the Kopeh Dagh fold-and-thrust belt (NE Iran) and interactions with the South Caspian Sea Basin and Amu Darya Basin, Marine and Petroleum Geology, Elsevier, 57, 68-87. ##
Smith-Rouch L S (2006) Oligocene-Miocene Maykop/Diatom Total Petroleum System of the South Caspian Basin Province, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin, 2201, 1-27. ##
Allen M B, Armstrong H A (2008) Arabia-Eurasia collision and the forcing of mid-Cenozoic global cooling, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 265, 52-88. ##
Brunet M F, Korotaev M V, Ershov A V, Nikishin A M (2003) The South Caspian Basin: a review of its evolution from subsidence modelling, Sedimentary Geology, 156, 119-148. ##
Allen M B, Jones S, Ismail-Zadeh A, Simmons M D (2002) Onset of subduction as the cause of rapid Plio-Quaternary subsidence in the South Caspian Basin, Geology, 30, 775-778. ##
Khalilov E N, Mekhtiyev S F, Khain V Y (1987) Some geophysical data confirming the collisional origin of the Greater Caucasus, Geotectonics, 21(2), 132-136. ##
Knapp C C, Knapp J H, Connor J A (2004) Crustal-scale structure of the South Caspian Basin revealed by deep seismic reflection profiling, Marine and Petroleum Geology, 21, 1073-1081. ##
Berberian M, King G C P (1981) Towards a paleogeography and tectonic evolution of Iran, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 18(2), 210-265. ##
Golonka J (2000) Geodynamic evolution of the south Caspian Basin, American Association of Petroleum Geologists’s Inaugural Regional International Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, July 9–12, 40– 45. ##
Zonenshain L P, Le Pichon X (1986) Deep basins of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea as remnants of Mesozoic back arc basins, Tectonophysics, 123, 181-211. ##
Allen M B, Vincent S J, Alsop G I, Ismail-zadeh A (2003) Late Cenozoic deformation in the South Caspian region: effects of a rigid basement block within a collision zone, Tectonophysics, 366, 223-239. ##
Brunet M F, Granath J W, Wilmsen M (2009) South Caspian to central Iran basins: introduction, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 312(1), 1-6. ##
Berberian M (1983) The southern Caspian: a compressional depression floored by a trapped, modified oceanic crust, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 20, 163–183. ##
Hinds D J, Aliyeva E, Allen M B, Davies C E (2004) Sedimentation in a discharge dominated fluvial-lacustrine system: The Neogene Productive Series of the South Caspian Basin, Azerbaijan, Marine and Petroleum Geology, 21, 613-638. ##
Abdullayev N R, Gregory W. Riley, Andrew P B (2010) Regional controls on lacustrine sandstone reservoirs: the Pliocene of the South Caspian Basin. In: Baganz OW, Bartov Y, Bohacs K, Nummendal D (eds.) Lacustrine sandstone reservoirs and hydrocarbon systems, AAPG Memoir, 95, 1-28. ##
Yassini I (1981) Para-Tethys Neogene deposits from the southern Caspian Sea, the bulletin of Iranian Petroleum Institute, 38, 1-24.
Soltani B, Beiranvand B, Moussavi-Harami R, Honarmand J, Taati F (2020) Facies Analysis and Depositional Setting of the Upper Pliocene Akchagyl Formation in Southeastern Caspian Basin, NE Iran, Carbonates and Evaporites, 35(8), 1-18. ##
Clifton H E (2007) A reexamination of facies models for clastic shorelines, Facies Models Revisit, 84, 293-337. ##
Abdullayev N A, Kadirov F, Guliyev I S (2015) Subsidence history and basin-fill evolution in the South Caspian Basin from geophysical mapping, flexural backstripping, forward lithospheric modelling and gravity modelling, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 427, 75-196. ##
Popov S V, Shcherba I G, Ilyina L B, Nevesskaya L A (2006) Late Miocene to Pliocene palaeogeography of the Paratethys and its relation to the Mediterranean, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 238, 91-106. ##
Rögl F (1999) Mediterranean and Paratethys, Facts and hypothesis of an Oligocene to Miocene paleogeography (short review), Geologica Carpathica, 50(4), 339-349. ##
Rögl F, Steininger F F (1983) Vom Zerfall der Tethys zu Mediterran und Para-Tethys, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien,, 85/ A, 135-163.
Popov S V, Antipov M P, Zastrozhnov A S, Kurina E E (2010) Sea_level Fluctuations on the Northern Shelf of the Eastern Paratethys in the Oligocene–Neogene, Geologicheskaya Korrelyatsiya, 18(2), 99-124. ##
Green T, Abdullayev N, Hossack J, Riley G (2009) Sedimentation and subsidence in the South Caspian Basin, Azerbaijan, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 312(1), 241-260. ##
Berggren W A, Kent D V, Swisher III C C, Aubry M P (1995) A revised Cenozoic geochronology and chronostratigraphy, Special Publications of SEPM, 54, 129-212. ##
Haq B U, Hardenbol I, Vail P R (1987) Chronology of fluctuating sea levels since the Triassic, Science, 235, 1156-1167.
Gillet S (1976) Le neogene da la region de Moghan (Azarbaidjan-Iranian) dapres la macrofauna, Paraktika Akad., Athin, 42, 57-78. ##
Journal of Petroleum Science and Technology
Volume 10, Issue 1
January 2020
Pages 46-53

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics