Stratigraphic evolution of the Black Sea: inferences from basin modelling

Abstract

A modelling simulation of the syn-rift and post-rift stratigraphies and subsidence history of the Western and Eastern Black Sea basins is described. The model uses the initial lithospheric conditions and rifting parameters (thinning factors, effective elastic thickness and depth of necking) derived by large-scale lithospheric deformation modelling. Using a stratigraphic modelling approach, supported by a large and high-quality data set, constraints on the palaeo-water depth evolution of the basin and associated basement subsidence are provided. The model reproduces and provides explanations for several features of the stratigraphy of the Black Sea: the apparent near-absence of syn-rift strata (other than in the Western Pontides); thin to condensed early post-rift sequences in both basins; a thick Upper Eocene sequence in the Eastern Black Sea; a relatively thin Oligocene to Miocene sequence and a very thick Quaternary sequence. It also predicts the geometry and depth of the lake that developed in the centre of the Black Sea when the sea level fell by 1500 m during the Late Miocene.