Active triangle zones within the two orogens convergence zone, central Caucasus, Georgia

Abstract

Collision and subsequent convergence of Arabia and Eurasian plates during the late Alpine time caused extensive intracontinental deformation in the Caucasus region (e.g., Cavazza et al., 2023). Inversion of back-arc basins, exhumation, and crustal thickening took place in the far-field zone, forming two orogens, and leading to a convergence between the Lesser Caucasus (LC) and Greater Caucasus (GC). Continuous convergence between the LC and GC caused incremental deformation of the Kura foreland basin (Alania et al., 2023). Our study area is located within the LC-GC convergence zone in the western Kura foreland basin and is represented by the lenticular-shaped compressional basin formed by northward and southward-directed thrusting. 2D seismic reflection profiles revealed the presence of triangle zones at the frontal part of the LC retro-wedge and GC pro-wedge. According to analog, seismic, and sequential kinematic modeling results, the frontal part of the GC is represented by a double wedge-dominated triangle zone and is characterized by the presence of passive, active wedges and passive-forethrust. In the frontal part of the LC orogen, the syn-kinematic (Middle-late Miocene) strata have been deformed and uplifted by passive-back thrusting at the triangle zone. Seismic reflection profiles show north-vergent duplex and structural wedge at the triangle zone beneath the thrust front monocline and is represented by Cretaceous-Paleogene strata. Western part of the triangle zone of the Kavtiskhevi-Akhalkalaki area is introduced by south-vergent imbricated fan (passive-back thrusts). The imbricated fan is characterized by fault-propagation folding. The kinematic evolution of south-vergent fault-propagation folds is related to northward propagating duplex. Recent and historical earthquakes and paleoseismic data indicate that the frontal part of LC and GC is tectonically active (e.g., Stahl et al., 2022; Tsereteli et al., 2016). ReferenceAlania, V., et al. (2023). Interpretation and analysis of seismic and analog modeling data of triangle zone: a case study from the frontal part of western Kura foreland fold-and-thrust belt, Georgia. Frontiers in Earth Sciences 11, 1195767.Cavazza, W., et al. (2023). Two-step exhumation of Caucasian intraplate rifts: a proxy of sequential plate-margin collisional orogenies, Geoscience Frontiers 15, 101737.Stahl, T. A., et al. (2022). Recent Surface Rupturing Earthquakes along the South Flank of the Greater Caucasus near Tbilisi, Georgia. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. XX, 1–19.Tsereteli, N., et al. (2016). Active tectonics of central-western Caucasus, Georgia. Tectonophysics 691, 328-344.