STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH’S CRUST ACCORDING TO GEOPHYSICAL DATA ALONG CHEGEM PROFILE (NORTH CAUCASUS)

Abstract

Several organizations in recent decades have carried out regional geophysical studies by various methods within the North Caucasus. Along the Chegem profile (the Kitlod Pass - town of Budennovsk), for the first time to the north of the junction zone of the Greater Caucasus structures with the Scythian plate, two distinct subhorizontal seismic boundaries, probably sharing a platform cover, a transitional complex and a consolidated foundation have been obtained. The platform cover, represented by large Paleozoic deposits, by analogy with many areas of the world where unique oil deposits, including six hydrocarbon deposits, and the gas condensate Karmalinovskoye deposit in the zone of the Forward Ridge, have already been discovered and explored, may prove promising for oil and gas structures. The results of deep geophysical studies of recent years can correct the direction of hydrocarbon exploration in the region. The oil-and-gas-bearing structures of the sedimentary cover, known in this region of the Ciscaucasia to the east of the Chegem profile, are confined to uplifts in geophysics in the consolidated crust or to their marginal parts. This gives grounds to expect the presence of hydrocarbons, probably in the parent Paleozoic formations of the Chernoslavskaya depression, and also, respectively, new promising sites in the sedimentary cover along its framing.