A Giant Mud Volcano System Within the On‐ and Offshore Eastern Azerbaijan, South Caspian Basin

ABSTRACT The paper presents the results of the interpretation of 2D and 3D seismic data from the Azerbaijani sector of the South Caspian Basin (SCB) to investigate mud volcano formation and associated processes. The study aimed at the investigation of the architecture and origin of mud volcanoes and their relationship with oil and gas fields. According to the results of the study, a ‘giant mud volcano system’ has been recognised in the study area with multiple groups of vents rooting from common feeder channels. A series of new mud volcanoes have been located. Stratigraphically, the volcanoes root from the base of the Oligocene‐Miocene Maikop Group, and feeder channels appear to branch out in the subsurface at the level of the top of the lower Pliocene Productive Series. Subsurface features previously believed to be anticlinal structures are reinterpreted as mud volcanoes. Mud volcanism in the study area appears to be synchronised in time and space with the growth of folds, as indicated by paleoreconstruction based on the seismic sections. The formation of the structures and oil and gas accumulations in the basin associated with mud volcanism and the vents of mud volcanoes are supposed to be the main pathways for hydrocarbon migration.