Paleomagnetic research of the Upper Miocene sections of Taman Peninsula (Eastern Paratethys)

<p>Magnetostratigraphic studies currently play an important role in the dating of the Miocene sections of the Kerch-Taman region (Eastern Paratethys). The major goal of our work was the paleomagnetic and rock magnetic studies of the transient Sarmatian-Meotian deposits in order to estimate the relative age (pre- or postfolding) of the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) using field tests. In order to solve this problem, during fieldwork in 2020-2021 the 280 hand-blocks at 0.1-2 m step were sampled from the key sections of the Sarmatian-Meotian transition - Popov Kamen, Panagia, Taman, and Tuzla (Taman Peninsula, Southern Russia). These sections located on different limbs of folds from one folded system. Thanks to rock magnetic studies, at least two magnetic minerals are determined - magnetic iron sulfide (presumably, greigite) and magnetite. NRM directions of two polarities, mostly isolated in the low-temperature interval and associated, apparently, with greigite, are determined. According to the results of paleomagnetic studies, a correlation between the bedding elements and NRM directions in the stratigraphic coordinate system is traceable. This, as well as the thermomagnetic results, show that the fold test for Popov Kamen and Panagia sections are negative, testify in favor of remagnetization, at least in part, of these sections. Our results suggest the impossibility of using the magnetostratigraphic method for dating the studied part of the sections Popov Kamen, Panagia, Taman, and Tuzla.</p><p>This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant No. 19-77-10075.</p>