Geological Correlation of the Mubarak (Southern Tien Shan) and Podhale (Inner Carpathians) Flysch Basins

Abstract

A comparative analysis and correlation of “atypical” flysch formations of the Tien Shan and the Carpathians is carried out in order to distinguish between local (regional) and general (interregional) features of their structure and place in the evolution of mobile belts. The objects of the study were the Upper Carboniferous flysch of the Khanaka syncline (Tien Shan) and the Upper Eocene flysch of the Podhale syncline (Carpathians). Using historical and geological analysis based on the study of lithostratigraphy, tectonic structure and geodynamic position of objects, a comparative characteristic of the flysch of the Khanaka syncline and the flysch of the Podhale syncline was carried out for the first time. The selected objects belong to different mobile belts and tectonic cycles; similar in internal structure and in non-standard tectonic position for flysch; they have some features that are not peculiar to flysch: formation on a quasi-platform basement, a significant volume of conglomerates, a simple configuration of geological bodies, the absence of internal deformations, and a narrow time interval of formation. On the basis of a comparative analysis, it was established that the studied objects belong to a special variety of flysch, which is proposed to be designated as the “final flysch of the inner massifs of mobile belts”, the formation of which reflects the specifics of the geodynamic evolution of the Hercynian and Alpine mobile belts.