STRUCTURE OF RIVER TERRACES OF THE MINOR CAUCASUS

Abstract

A new correlation scheme was drawn up for the river systems of the Araks and Kura. 14 terrace levels in the basin of the river Araks and 13 levels in the basin of the river Kura were newly distinguished. They are aged from the Late Akchagyl up to and including Novocaspian. These levels have different relative heights, which are subdivided into four groups: low, medium, high and highest. The sequence of river terraces is most fully expressed in the intermountain valleys and foothills. In these areas, terraces have been correlated with each other are traced into the mountain zone, where they move in glaciofluvial sediments and moraines. Furthermore terraces have been traced into the Kura depression and associated with the marine sediments of the Caspian sea to determine their relative age. The specific structure is characteristic to terraces of the rivers on the volcanic uplands, where the outpouring of lavas has had a great influence on their formation. Lava repeatedly during the Pliocene and Pleistocene filled valley that led to the burial of terraces, damming valleys and the formation of lakes, especially large ones in intermontane depressions.