Geochemical Features of the Jurassic Terrigenous Sedimentary Complex of the Greater Caucasus

Abstract

The paper considers factors that determined the geochemical features of the Jurassic terrigenous complex of the northern Caucasus. It is shown that at the initial stages of sedimentation, source rocks were the pre-Mesozoic crystalline basement. The geochemical composition of the Jurassic rocks was also affected by weathering crusts developed on serpentinite massifs. The formation of large deltaic and prodeltaic complex in the eastern sector of the paleobasin determined the lithological and geochemical peculiarities of the accumulated sediments and facies asymmetry of the basin. The influence of climate, rate, and stability of sedimentation, diagenetic transformations of sediments, content and composition of organic matter, gas regime of basin waters, and other factors on the sedimentary process is estimated. A different combination of these factors determined the geochemical diversity of rocks in the Early and Middle Jurassic paleobasin of the Greater Caucasus.