See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304777714

MAPS OF THE GRAVITY AND MAGNETIC

ANOMALIES FOR THE WESTERN BLACK SEA
CONTINENTAL MARGIN (ROMANIAN-
BULGARIAN SECTOR)

Conference Paper June 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1401.2405

CITATION READS

1 73

4 authors, including:

Radu George Dimitriu Gheorghe Oaie

National Institute for Research and Develo National Institute for Research and Develo
62 PUBLICATIONS 77 CITATIONS 73 PUBLICATIONS 170 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Boyko Ranguelov
University of Mining and Geology
52 PUBLICATIONS 145 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Crustal movements and the associated Holocene paleogeographic evolutions within

Danube Delta and the coastal zone - Scientific instruments for the integrated management
of the coastal zone and of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve View project

All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: Radu George Dimitriu
letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 31 October 2016
 Applied and Environmental Geophysics

MAPS OF THE GRAVITY AND MAGNETIC ANOMALIES

FOR THE WESTERN BLACK SEA CONTINENTAL MARGIN
(ROMANIAN-BULGARIAN SECTOR)

Dr. Radu G. Dimitriu1

Dr. Gheorghe Oaie1
Prof. Dr. Boyko Ranguelov2
Prof. Dr. Radi Radichev2
1
National Institute of Marine Geology and Geoecology, Romania
2
University of Mining and Geology, Bulgaria

ABSTRACT
Unified maps reflecting the regional morphology of gravity and geomagnetic fields
across a wide sector of the western Black Sea continental margin, summing over 65,000
sq.km of which about 47,000 sq.km are offshore, were obtained by integrating gravity
and magnetic data recently measured off the Romanian and Bulgarian coast with similar
historic data, independently measured onshore during the previous decades. Thus, the
resulted composite map of gravity anomaly compiles the Bouguer and Free Air gravity
anomalies obtained from measurements carried on onshore and respectively offshore.
Unlike this, the composite map of magnetic anomaly integrates magnetic total field data
acquired recently offshore and by airborne measurements over Romanian onshore
several decades ago, with magnetic vertical component data measured on Bulgarian
dryland. The geophysical composite maps resulted are advanced tools for the future
researches and modellings aiming to decipher the deep geological structure of the
western Black Sea continental margin, of the processes that govern its past and actual
geodynamics.
Keywords: Black Sea, gravity, magnetics, maps.
INTRODUCTION
During December 2010 and May 2013 four
research institutes from Romania and
Bulgaria ran an EU funded, cross-border
cooperation project aiming the set up and
implementation along the coast and the
adjacent offshore of the first early-warning
system for geohazards of marine origin in
the Black Sea basin. Beside the efforts
namely dedicated to the implementation of
the systems core components, a special
attention was focused on gathering, data-
basing all existing geo-information relative
Fig. 1 Marine area investigated off the to the Romanian and Bulgarian coast zone
Romanian and Bulgarian coast (dashed and offshore and also to covering the entire
polygon). The main geotectonic units are
depicted. STF Sulina Tarkhankut Fault, PCF
Peceneaga-Camena Fault, COF Capidava-
Ovidiu Fault, IMF Intra Moesian Fault. 537
Compiled from [1], [2], [3].
16th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2016

area of interest with an uniform network of new, complex geophysical lines.

The geophysical marine mapping, consisting on simultaneous multi-beam bathymetry,
on-board gravimetry and total field magnetometry, was carried out in 2011 and 2012 on
board the R/V Mare Nigrum, owned and operated by GeoEcoMar (Romania) and
covered an area of about 47,000 sq.km of the continental shelf and slope of Romania
and Bulgaria. The bathymetric interval investigated geophysically stretches from water
depths of around 20-40 m to 1800-1900 m (Fig. 2). Other nearshore surfaces covered by
shallow waters, summing over 1,550 sq.km, magnetically mapped on other occasions
off the Romanian coast, were also added to that mapped in deep waters and used for
obtaining the map of the total magnetic field anomaly.

Fig. 2 The bathymetry map of the Romanian and Bulgarian offshore investigated in 2011-2012

The main goal of the paper is the integration of gravity and magnetic data measured
offshore with similar data, independently measured in Romania and Bulgaria during the
previous decades, by different means and methodologies, in order to get unified images
 Applied and Environmental Geophysics

reflecting the regional morphology of the gravity and geomagnetic fields across a
significant sector of the western Black Sea continental margin.
REGIONAL GEOLOGICAL SETTING
The Black Sea basin is a huge, elliptic shape depression, filled up by a thick, Mesozoic
and Cenozoic sedimentary pile which totally seals its heterogeneous basement. The
depression area is surrounded by orogenic systems of various ages, such as the North
Dobrogea Orogen, South Crimea Caucasus system on the north and the Balkanides,
Strandja-Sakaria Zone, Istanbul Zone and the Pontides system on the south. Deep
seismic investigations [1] distinguished the presence, at the level of the basin basement,
of two distinct extensional sub-basins separated by the Mid Black Sea Ridge. The
Western Black Sea Basin was opened in Early CretaceousMid Eocene as an
extensional back-arc basin related with the northward subduction of the Neotethys
behind the Pontides Rhodope arc. The rifting process, causing the separation of the a
continental block (Istanbul Zone) from the Odessa shelf and its southward drifting [4],
was followed by the Late Cretaceous major subsidence and the emplacement of oceanic
crust in the central part of the western sub-basin.
The basement of the Pre-Dobrogea Depression (Fig. 1), part of the Scythian Platform
(SP), consists of Proterozoic granitoid rocks and Neoproterozoic to Permian
sedimentary formations. Onshore, the depressions sedimentary cover includes
Paleozoic, Lower Triassic, Middle-Upper Triassic, Jurassic, Lower Cretaceous and
Sarmatian-Pliocene sedimentary cycles, all separated by major sedimentation gaps. The
southern limit of the platform is represented by Sulina-Tarkhankut Fault.
The North Dobrogea Orogen (NDO) is a segment of the Hercynian Orogeny, reworked
during the Alpines Cimmerian tectogenetic phases and bordered to south by the crustal
PeceneagaCamena Fault. Its Hercynian basement widely exposed in north-western
Dobrogea consists of several epi- and meso-metamorphic series of Precambrian and
Cambrian age, penetrated by numerous Palaeozoic intrusive to subvulcanous igneous
rocks emplaced at different depths in crust. The eastern part of the orogen is dominated
onshore by Triassic to Jurassic geological formations. The numerous basaltic lava
flows, interbedded with limestones, located in the median part of the unit, actually are
the ophyolithic scar of an Early Triassic intra-continental rift. All Cimmerian structures
are concealed toward south-east by the Upper Cretaceous formations of the Babadag
Synclinorium which prolongated offshore in the Histria Depression.
The Moesian Platform (MP), between the crustal Peceneaga-Camena Fault and the Pre-
Balkan Line (Fig. 1), prolongates offshore, on the continental shelf and slope, where is
gradually replaced by the intermediary and oceanic-type crust. The Intramoesian Fault
separates the Dobrogean and the Wallachian sectors of the platform, also known as
Eastern and Western Moesia. The Capidava-Ovidiu Fault divides the eastern,
Dobrogean sector in Central Dobrogea, with exposed Neoproterozoic basement and
Southern Dobrogea where the Archean Proterozoic basement is found at 600 m depth.
Within the Wallachian sector, the magmatic factor is present, whereas in Eastern
Moesia it lacks. The thick, over 10-12 km in Varna and Kamchia Depressions,
sedimentary cover of MP has low deformations and is an excellent lithological and
tectonic record of all geological events starting with the Cambrian [5]. It comprises
sedimentary formations of ?Cambrian-Ordovician-Carboniferous, Permian-Triassic,
Jurassic-Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary cycles.
539
16th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2016

The Balkan Orogen (BO) is the southernmost major geotectonic unit within the study
area. This Alpine orogenic system is conventionaly divided in three main tectonic
zones: Balkan, Srednogorie and Morava-Rhodope, of which the Eastern Balkan and
Srednogorie units occur in the coastal zone and the adjacent offshore. The main features
of the Balkanides are wide occurrence of Triassic and JurassicLower Cretaceous
platform carbonates, development of flysch deposits of Upper JurassicLower
Cretaceous and Upper CretaceousPalaeocene age and lack of Mesozoic magmatites
[6]. The East Balkan zone is mainly composed of folded Cenomanian to Eocene
turbiditic sequence of clay-carbonates and clastic sediments, which cover Triassic
carbonates and Lower-Middle Jurassic shales, locally associated with Upper Triassic
flysch-like sediments [2]. The key feature of Srednogorie zone is the massive presence
of the Late Cretaceous vulcanism and synchronous granitoid intrusions, ranging in
composition from ultrabasic to acid, interpreted as an island-arc/back-arc system. An
over 4 km thick Upper Cretaceous vulcano-sedimentary formation dominates the
easternmost sector. The magmatic factor is also present at the crystalline basement
level, where the Precambrian, high-grade metamorphic rocks host Palaeozoic granites.
The folowing main sedimentary mega-sequeces were separated by seismics within the
Western Black Sea Basin: Late and Early Quaternary, Late and Early Pliocene,
Miocene, Oligocene, Eocene-Paleocene, Cretaceous, Triassic and Paleozoic/Precam-
brian basement. The total thickness of these sedimentary formations is of 6-7 km on the
continental shelf and slope and reaches 12-13 km in the inner parts of the basin, where
Eocene, Oligocene and Neogene become very thick.
METHOD
The complex geophysical mapping of the Romanian and Bulgarian offshore was carried
on during three sea cruises in 2011 and one sea cruise in 2012. The survey area (Fig. 1)
was covered by an uniform network of geophysical lines heading W-E, each 4 km apart
from the next and several other control lines, which crossed all W-E trending, regular
lines and were used for the raw data quality control and validation. Finally, information
acquired along over 13,400 km and 15,500 km of geophysical lines was processed for
obtaining the maps of gravity and respectively magnetic anomalies.
All marine gravity mapping has been made with an on-board gravity meter system,
model GMN-K(M), manufactured in former USSR and modernized in early 90s by
Russian specialists. The average global accuracy of the system, granted by its
manufacturer, of up to 5.0 mGal for cruises lasting up to 30 days, was later improved
through the system modernization up to 0.6 mGal [7].
The gravity corrections (i.e. normal field based on Silva-Cassinis International Formula)
and reductions (i.e. for instrumental drift, Etvs effect, etc.) were applied to data, in
accordance with standard procedure [8], in order to obtain the Free Air (Faye) gravity
anomaly of the mapped offshore sector. Data was also corrected in such a way, that the
COEs 1 to be minimized. Finally, the variation domain for the residual COEs was
constrained to 3.2 mGal, with a standard deviation of 1.1 mGal for the entire surveyed
area. The reference level (980 570.84 mGal) used for the resulted Free Air gravity map

1
COE = cross-over-error, the difference noticed in the crossing points of the observation network.
 Applied and Environmental Geophysics

is relative to the fundamental gravity base station located in Constana Harbour, at Pier
10 (44o1007.8N latitude; 28o3929.2E longitude).
The marine magnetic mapping was all carried out with a Geometrics proton
precession magnetometer, model G-877. The meter, able to continuously measure
worldwide the total intensity of the Earths magnetic field with an accuracy of 0.1 nT,
was towed 280 m behind the 82 m long research vessel.
The diurnal variation of the geomagnetic field was recorded at base stations located on
the coastal zone at Jurilovca, Vama Veche in Romania and at Varna in Bulgaria, which
were continuously operated during the sea cruises, thus allowing to apply diurnal
variation corrections to raw magnetic data measured offshore. The normal geomagnetic
field correction have been made based on the IGRF formula for the geomagnetic epoch
2012.0 (= 2012/01/01). The COE analysis and compensation procedure 2, also conducted
for the magnetic data, was finally constrained to 5.8 nT, with a standard deviation of
1.7 nT. The reference level of the magnetic anomaly map is 48,630.5 nT, corresponding
to the geomagnetic base station located in Romania near the village Jurilovca
(44o4457.3N latitude; 28o5254.2E longitude), at the considered geomagnetic epoch.
DISCUSSION
In order to obtain unified images of the regional morphology of the gravity and
magnetic fields above the wide sector of the western Black Sea continental margin
studied, the geophysical data sets acquired in 2011 and 2012 off the coast of Romania
and Bulgaria were supplemented with data measured in past on the neighbouring
dryland. In the case of gravimetry, terrestrial gravity measurements, most of them
acquired prior to 1990, for the completion of national, gravity anomaly maps at regional
scale were considered. The two terrestrial gravity data sets from Romania and Bulgaria
were brought to the same reference level of the gravity base station, fundamental for the
offshore works, located in Constana harbor. This made possible the cross-border
correlation of data, on one hand and also the correlation of onshore and offshore gravity
data sets, on the other hand. The result of this data integration is presented in Fig. 3 as a
composite map of the gravity anomaly (i.e. Bouguer gravity onshore and Free Air
gravity offshore). In the case of magnetometry the data sets available for the Romanian
and Bulgarian onshore consisted of the airborne total magnetic field measurements flew
in mid-60s, later used for the completion of the national set of map sheets at scale of
1:200,000 [9] and respectively of ground measurements of the vertical component of the
Earths magnetic field. In order to unify the data, special transformation were applied.
Thus, the airborne measurements, flew at a constant height of 400 m above the
Romanian territory, have been continued downward to the ground level and the vertical
component measurements made throughout Bulgaria have been converted to pseudo-
total field measurements using in computation the local magnetic inclinations obtained
for each ground station with the IGRF formula.
The geophysical maps compiled (Fig. 3 and 4) cover a wide sector (over 65,000 sq.km)
of the western Black Sea continental margin, comprising both dryland and sea surfaces
and depict the regional variations of the gravity and magnetic fields. The maps clearly
highlight the spatial extension of the main geotectonic units (Fig. 1), their prolongation

2
Intersections from areas with intense and rapid variations of the field have not been considered.
541
16th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2016

in the offshore, at least until the continental slope and also the gradual transition from a
continental- to a oceanic-type crust.

Fig. 3 Composite map of the gravity anomaly (Bouguer gravity onshore, Free Air gravity offshore) of
the western Black Sea continental margin (Romanian and Bulgarian sector)

The composite map of gravity anomaly (Fig. 3) display very large variations of gravity,
ranging from -125 mGal off the Bulgarian coast (partly this negative effect retained by
the Free Air anomaly is due to the submerged topography), to over 55 mGal off
Romanian coast (transition from continental to oceanic crust) and over 65 mGal in
Burgas-Ahtopol area, above the dense formations of Srednogorie Unit. On the other
hand, the composite map of magnetic anomaly (Fig. 4) highlights the coexistence of two
distinct signatures of the magnetic field. The first one covers the central and the
northernmost sectors of the map, which corresponds to Moesian and respectively to
Scythian platforms. Both positive and negative, sometimes bipolar magnetic anomalies,
with amplitudes ranging from tens to several hundreds of nT and areal extensions up to
 Applied and Environmental Geophysics

several tens of km, were mapped there. Unlike this, the magnetic signature
corresponding to orogenic units, North Dobrogea Orogen to north and Balkanides to
south, display intense to very intense (hundreds to several thousands of nT) positive and
negative anomalies organized along narrow, quasi-parallel strips which reveal the
presence in depth of the tectono-magmatic alignments.

Fig. 4 Composite map of the magnetic anomaly (total geomagnetic field) of the western Black Sea
continental margin (Romanian and Bulgarian sector)
CONCLUSION
An extended sector of the Romanian and Bulgarian offshore was recently subject of a
complex, geophysical investigation carried out by geoscientists from the two countries.
Marine gravity and magnetic data acquired on this occasion was compiled with similar
historic geophysical data available on the adjacent onshore and composite maps of the
gravity (Bouguer onshore and Free Air offshore) anomaly and of the total magnetic
field anomaly resulted. These maps depict in a unitary and cross-border manner the
543
16th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2016

regional morphology of the gravity and magnetic fields both on the continental and
marine domains. Most valuable tectonic and petrology information, contained by the
geophysical maps, is now ready to be released and converted into geological
knowledge. It represent an important asset, available to scientific community, useful in
the oncoming research projects focused on the deciphering of the deep geological
structure of the western Black Sea continental margin, of its past and actual
geodynamics. The study also stress that only through an international scientific
approach, extended to the scale of the entire Black Sea basin and surrounding regions
(e.g. [1]), key information able to answer some of the numerous enigma that still cloak
this basin may be achieved.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: All field and office activities carried out during 2011
2013 for the geophysical investigation of the Romanian and Bulgarian offshore
herewith presented were funded by EU through the Cross-Border Cooperation
Romania-Bulgaria 2007-2013 Program, within the project MARINEGEOHAZARD -
Set-up and implementation of key core components of a regional early-warning system
for marine geohazards of risk to the Romanian-Bulgarian Black Sea coastal area.

REFERENCES
[1] Finetti, I., Bricchi, G., Del Ben, A., Pipan, M., Xuan, Z., Geophysical study of the
Black Sea, Boll. Geof. Teor. Appl., vol. 30, issue 117-118, p. 197-324, 1988.
[2] Bergerat F., Vangelov D., Dimov D., Brittle deformation, palaeostress field
reconstruction and tectonic evolution of the Eastern Balkanides (Bulgaria) during
Mesozoic and Cenozoic times, in Sasson M., Kaymakci N., Stephenson R.A., Bergerat
F., Starostenko V. (eds.), Sedimentary Basin Tectonics from the Black Sea and
Caucasus to the Arabian Platform, Geol. Society, London, Sp. Pub., p. 77-114, 2010.
[3] Munteanu I., Maenco L., Dinu C., Cloetingh S., Kinematics of back-arc inversion
of the Western Black Sea Basin, Tectonics, vol. 30, issue 5, 21 pp., 2011.
[4] Okay A.I., Grr N, Tectonic evolution models for the Black Sea, AAPG Regional
International Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, July, 9-12, 2000, AAPG Search and
Discovery Article #900242000, 2004.
[5] Tari G., Dicea O., Faulkerson J., Georgiev G., Popov S., tefnescu M., Weir G.,
Cimmerian and Alpine stratigraphy and structural evolution of the Moesian Platform
(Romania/Bulgaria); in Robinson A.G. (ed.), Regional and petroleum geology of the
Black Sea and surrounding region: AAPG Memoir, vol. 68, p. 63-90, 1997.
[6] Zagorchev, I., Dabovski, C., Nikolov, T. (eds.), Geology of Bulgaria. vol. 2
(Presentation), https.//www.researchgate.net/publication/266615718, 2009.
[7] Budanov V.G., Pashko V.F., Atakov A.I., Lokshin B.S., Sava C.S, Dimitriu R.G.,
Usage of high precision marine on-board gravimetry for the studies on main structures
of ocean bottom, Romanian Geophysics, 7, suppl. 1, 110-113, 2000.
[8] Dehlinger P., Marine gravity, Elsevier, 322 pp., 1978
[9] Ionescu F., Popescu-Brdet L., Popescu M., Airborne magnetic anomaly (Ta) map
of Romania, scale 1:200.000, mapsheets: Chilia, Brila, Tulcea, Sulina, Clrai,
Constana and Mangalia, I.G.G. Bucureti, Romania,1978.