The jurassic events in the Greater Caucasus basin (Northern Neotethys) and the Neuquén basin (West Gondwana): a comparison

Abstract

Quite a few common tectonic, palaeoenvironmental, and palaeobiological events have been recognized in the Jurassic evolution of the Greater Caucasus basin (Northern Neotethys) and the Neuquén basin (West Gondwana). Both basins were originated by the same planetary-scale tectonic force, i.e., by the activity of the Intrapangaean Shear Zone stretching eastwards along the Eurasian margin as the Northern Tethyan Shear Zone. An oxygen depletion occurred in both studied regions in the Toarcian as a result of global anoxia, which provoked a mass extinction. In both basins, the Callovian was a time for the carbonate platform growth, although in the Greater Caucasus, a carbonate platform appeared only in the Late Callovian. A salinity crisis occurred in the Greater Caucasus during the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian, whereas the same took place twice in the Neuquén basin - in the Middle Callovian and in the late Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian. These events were related to the global epoch of evaporite deposition. Some important differences between the considered basins are also documented. Palaeontological data from the Neuquén basin suggest against the mass extinction at the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition. In contrast, data from the Greater Caucasus basin permit to recognize this global event, although its regional peak occurred in the Berriasian. The Jurassic transgressions and regressions in the Greater Caucasus and western Argentina differed, facts that may be explained by the differences in the regional geodynamics. The only common pattern was a stepwise transgression during the Sinemurian-Pliensbachian.