Correlation Relationships in the Trace Element Composition of Crustal Fluids: The Caucasian Region

Abstract

We have carried out a correlation analysis to study relationships between the trace element (TE) composition of mud-volcanic and carbon dioxide fluids in the Greater Caucasus on the one hand and the chemical composition of upper, middle, and lower crust, as well as various kinds of biota on the other hand. It has turned out to be possible to relate the roots of the associated fluid flows with definite stages of the Earth’s crust, as well as to point out, in several cases, the kind of the dominant original organic matter. The roots of both carbon dioxide fluids and mud-volcanic fluids were shown to reside in the middle crust. We have compared correlative relationships for deep-seated fluids in the Caucasus with those for oils in several major oil-gas basins in Russia and in the fluid systems of Kamchatka.