Home – Home – Jornals – Russian Geology and Geophysics 2007 number 9

The Olkhon area in the western Baikal region belongs to the Baikal rift system. The terrain bears strong imprint of the Early Paleozoic structural framework produced by a multistage collision. The today's elevation pattern records the main features of inhomogeneous basement lithology. The topography of the area is generally governed by the tectonic style, and tectonic landforms remain weakly denuded and almost uneroded. Thus the Cenozoic geomorphic framework can be correlated to the Early Paleozoic basement structure.

With U-Pb zircon dating, we determined the age of rhyodacites composing sedimentary covers among coarse-terrigenous rocks of the lowermost Chaya Formation of the Akitkan Group (North Baikal volcanoplutonic belt). These rocks are considered to have formed during the sedimentation. The dates (1863 ± 9 Ma) permitted estimation of the age of basal beds of the Chaya Formation and substantiate the age boundary between the Khibelen and Chaya Formations of the Akitkan Group. The determined age and earlier dates of igneous rocks intruding the Chaya Formation deposits suggest that the latter accumulated for ~10 Myr.

The Yenisei Range and the adjacent territories in the east are subdivided into (1) the Mid-Angara intracratonic depression; (2) the Yenisei pericratonic trough; and 3) a marginal oceanic block, the Isakovka-Predivinsk area. The lower part of the Riphean succession is subdivided into two principally different sedimentary complexes - the Lower Sukhoi Pit Subgroup and the Upper Sukhoi Pit Subgroup (the Pogoryui-Alad'in interval of the succession). The fundamental nature of the events that separate these two complexes and the characteristic, rhythmically bedded structure of the Upper Sukhoi Pit Subgroup allow the latter to be ranked a separate straton, the Bol'shoi Pit Group. Its lower boundary is associated with the Grenvillian events commencing with the emplacement of the Teya granite-gneiss domes and other intrusive complexes dated at 1100-1000 Ma. In the sedimentation record these events are manifested as a sudden change from the slate complex, for which we keep the name Sukhoi Pit Group, to the rhythmically bedded succession of the Bol'shoi Pit Group. The latter is interpreted as a product of uproofing of an elevated hinterland to the west. Insofar as the amplitude of this elevated area decreases progressively toward the Mid-Angara trough, the Bol'shoi Pit erosional unconformity and the associated interval of nondeposition are absent from the area. In the west of the Yenisei Range, in contrast, there is a major stratigraphic gap in the sequence, which is associated with the aforementioned events. The hypothesis on intensive events separating the deposition of the Bol'shoi Pit Group of the Kerpylian Horizon and the Tungusik Group of the Lakhandinian Horizon is not supported by the new data. The change from carbonate facies into siliciclastics in the west was misinterpreted as an erosional unconformity, with basal deposits corresponding to the lower boundary of the Tungusik Group. The occurrence of the Upper Tungusik deposits overlying much older rocks is a result of the pre-Bol'shoi Pit erosion and the gradual expansion of the Tungusik transgression. Thus, there are no grounds to argue for significant pre-Lakhandinian events in the region. Hence, the Kerpylian and Lakhandinian in the Yenisei Range, as well as in other parts of the Siberian Craton, constitute two parts of a larger supraregional straton, which corresponds to the lower half of the Upper Riphean and is designated here the Mayanian. The fundamentally different nature of the events associated with the next, Baikalian stage of the development allows its tripartite subdivision in the region. Deposition of the Lower Baikalian (the Oslyanka Group) was preceded by the crustal extension at the junction between the continental and oceanic blocks and, possibly, the formation of one of the Yenisei Range ophiolite complexes, followed by the emplacement of the Tatarka-Ayakhta batholiths at around 850 Ma. Fragments of both complexes are found as clasts in the basal conglomerates of the Middle Baikalian Chingasan Horizon. The specific character of the pre-Baikalian events determines their apparently poor expression in the sedimentation (weaker metamorphism of the Oslyanka deposits compared with the Tungusik Group). Even the activity leading to the formation of the Tatarka-Ayakhta granites cannot be regarded as a full-scale orogenic process. Collisional events separating the Lower and Middle Baikalian are manifested as the erosional unconformity at the base of the Chingasan Group and the emplacement of the Glushikha granites (760-730 Ma). The Middle Baikalian age of the Chingasan deposits is constrained by the data from paleontology, historical geology, and geochronology. Furthermore, the presence of glacial deposits renders this straton as a global stratigraphic marker. Further expansion of transgression in the Upper Baikalian is linked to another important event, but additional paleontological and geochronological information is needed to date the Upper Baikalian (Chapa Group) more accurately. The Baikalian events synchronously manifested themselves in all structural-facies zones of the Yenisei Range and are coeval to structural complexes from adjacent areas of the Siberian Craton. The tripartite Baikalian, therefore, has a potential for being included into the General Scale of the upper Upper Riphean.

Triassic sections of the Lena lower reaches (northern Yakutia) were studied. Stratigraphy and paleontology of the Triassic deposits were refined and described in detail, and their age was constrained by different fauna groups. The first detailed local Triassic biostratigraphic scheme is reported, which includes ammonoid, nautiloid, and bivalve zones and subzones and foraminifer beds. The scheme is compared with the Canadian Triassic Zonal and Standard (International) Scales.

We studied the chemical composition of rock-forming minerals in gabbroids from the Chirii outcrop and the evolutionary features of parental basic melt during the crystallization of these rocks. Results were compared with data for basanites from pipes of the North Minusa depression. The mineralogical composition and thermobarogeochemical data of the gabbroids were examined in detail, and chemical analyses of rock-forming minerals (clinopyroxene, plagioclase, amphibole, biotite, titanomagnetite, and apatite) were carried out. Based on the homogenization temperatures of primary melt inclusions, we established the minimum temperatures and sequence of mineral crystallization in the gabbroids: clinopyroxene (>1160

A unique xenolith of eclogite, 23 × 17 × 11 cm in size and 8 kg in weight, was found in the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe. One hundred twenty-four diamond crystals recovered from it were analyzed by a number of methods. The diamonds differ in morphology, internal structure, color, size, and composition of defects and impurities. The xenolith contains diamonds of octahedral and cubooctahedral habits. In cathodoluminescence, the octahedral crystals have a brightly glowing core with octahedral zones of growth and a weakly glowing rim. In the cores of these crystals the N impurity is mostly present in the B1 form (30 to 60%). At the same time, N in the rim is chiefly in the A form. The cubooctahedral crystals show a weak luminescence. The content of nitrogen and degree of its aggregation are close to those in the rim of octahedral crystals. The diversity of morphology and impurity composition of diamonds from the xenolith can be explained by their formation in two stages. At the first stage, the diamonds formed which became the cores of octahedra. After a long-time interruption, at the second stage of diamond formation crystals of cubooctahedral habit appeared and the octahedral crystals were overgrown. Wide variations in nitrogen contents in the xenolith crystals allowed their use to estimate the kinetics of aggregated nitrogen. The data obtained show that the aggregation of A centers into B1 centers in the diamonds is described by a kinetic reaction of an order of 1.5.

TEM responses in an inhomogeneous medium are modeled in 3D using the vector finite element method for induction logging in petroleum wells. The algorithm is applied to HFIL diagrams obtained in wells that tap thinly laminated formations with regard to the true position of logging tools.

Sunshading is a powerful tool for the enhancement of edges in images. Given the azimuth and elevation of a source illumination, it calculates the reflectance from a surface which is composed of the data to be interpreted. It is a standard tool used in the interpretation of geophysical potential field data. In the great Oulad Abdoun phosphate basin, inclusions of sterile hardpan - so-called