ABOUT THE PROSPECTS OF OIL AND GAS POTENTIAL OF THE ANCIENT CORE OF THE NORTH CAUCASIAN FOLDED REGION

The article summarizes the materials on the structure of the zone of the Front Range of the North Caucasus, which makes it possible to attribute its pre-Jurassic formations to rocks promising for oil and gas. The Tectonic-formational Front Range zone is a fragment of the Bolshekavkazskaya accretion-collision cover-folded region. Its structure was formed in the course of several tectonic-magmatic cycles, the main of which were the Hercynian, which determined its lithological content and primary nappe structure, as well as the Indosinian. Thesе processes of counter motion continued later, in the Cimmerian and even, possibly, in the Alpine time, and were the cause of multiple bilateral movements of the plates of Paleozoic and even Mesozoic rocks. Participation of the Hercynian ophiolites in the folding leads to the formation of an intense and complex internal structure of the anomalous magnetic field, largely repeating its outlines. The structure of the Front Range zone can continue in the north-west and east directions, where similar morphology (sublinearly elongated), rather intense magnetic fields are observed, somewhat weakened by the cover of Mesozoic sediments. In the first case, this area partially coincides with the West Kuban oil and gas region. In the second one there is an area of the Terek-Sunzha oil and gas basin, which is also marked by an extended magnetic field anomaly. Both of these magnetic fields are caused, as we assume, by a buried nappe-folded structure and a lithology similar to the Front Range zone. This coincidence can be explained by the oil- and gas-producing nature of the zones of co-movement of large blocks with a two-way counter-immersion to a considerable depth of various rocks, including oil-gas-source rocks, sandwiched between them. This gives us reason to attribute the zone of the Front Range itself in its exposed part to the areas that are promising for hydrocarbons.

Caucasus, Front Range zone, accretion, faults, anomalous magnetic field, oil and gas bearing areas