Reconstruction of Source Provinces for the Lower Cretaceous Deposits of the Northwestern Caucasus

Abstract— The results of the reconstruction of source provinces are presented for the Lower Cretaceous deposits of the northwestern Caucasus. The resulting data have made it possible to clarify the paleoenvironments of the sedimentation and identify the source areas of clastic material. The main source of the clastic material was located northeast of the studied territory near the Scythian Plate; there was also a source in the southeast, in the Greater Caucasus region. In the Berriasian–Valanginian, Upper Jurassic reefs were periodically eroded along the southern edge of the Scythian Plate.