Tracing the Karangat Sea

The Karangat Sea is an ancient basin located within the Azov–Black Sea region during the last interglacial epoch (about 130–90 thousand years ago). Its level was 5–10 m higher than the current one, and the salinity was close to the Mediterranean one (about 28–30‰). Traces of its existence can be observed in the natural coastal outcrops of Bulgaria, Eastern Crimea, Taman, the Caucasus, Turkey, and even in the sediments of the western and central parts of the Manych depression, where Karangat waters formed a deep ingressive bay. There is still no common opinion on the number of the Karangat regression stages, its age and rates of development. Until recently, in geography there was no reliable method of absolute dating that would allow determining the age of deposits older than 40 thousand years. Only the introduction of a new approach — the method of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) — made possible a fairly accurate dating of deposits up to 250–500 thousand years old. In order to clear up the controversial issues in the history of the region, in August 2020, researchers from the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Institute of Geography (RAS) organized an expedition to the coasts of the Kerch Strait and the southern coast of Crimea.

interglacial, Black Sea, MIS5, geochronology, palaeogeography, sea level change, transgression, molluscs, OSL dating