Paleozoic reef formation in the Pechora syneclise and the Caspian basin – a comparative analysis

Abstract

In the two marginal depressions of the East European Platform, the Pechora syneclise and the Caspian depression, reef formations are widely represented, but the stratigraphic intervals of their development are far from equal. In the Pechora syneclise, reef formation began in the second half of the Llandoverian, reached its maximum in the Frasnian and was replaced by the development of reef hills in the Famennian. The structures are represented both as asymmetric reefs framing the shallow zones at their boundary with relatively deep paleobasins and in the form of single structures within the latter. The reefs of the next global maximums, the Late Visean-Serpukhovian and Lower Permian, are developed only marginally at the boundary with the Ural paleoocean and its relic, the Pre-Urals foreland basin. In the Caspian basin, reefs of all three global maxima of development are present, and there are both asymmetric reef systems framing the shelf edges and symmetric intra-basin isolated structures. Such difference is due to the different paleogeomorphological type of the basins. The Caspian basin was sharply differentiated in depth throughout the Middle and Late Paleozoic, which led to the formation of reefs rising above the bottom of these basins. In the Pechora syneclise, depth differentiation of the basins occurred only in the late Devonian. Generally weakly dissected shallow seas of the Visiean-Serpukhovian and early Permian did not provide conditions for the formation of powerful reefs protruding above the seafloor. The latter were formed only on the edge of the Ural paleoocean, and in the Permian ‒ on the edge of the Pre-Ural foreland basin.