Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2024 number 4

Presented are the results from analyzing the topography of Academician Ridge by using an array of detailed bathymetric data obtained with a multibeam echo sounder. It has been established that the surface of the ridge and its sides are dominated by fault ledges linearly elongated to the north-east. The benches form slope surfaces and give an asymmetrical shape to the transverse profile of the ridge. The summit surface of the ridge in its southwestern and central parts is complicated by ridge-ravine and hilly-hollow relief, the formation of which, presumably, may be associated with landslide processes, fault tectonics, and active seismicity of the territory. The rectilinear or slightly curved shapes in the central part of the ridge could have been created as a result of the dissection of the Akademician fault scarp by transverse diagonal faults. Some of them could have inherited the tectonic pattern of longitudinal and transverse faults in the basement and sedimentary strata. The assumption about the formation of a hilly-hollow relief and some linearly elongated forms as a result of the activity of bottom currents is not confirmed by the conducted studies. The southeastern slope of the range is complicated in the southwestern part by ridge-gully relief, and in the central part by terrace-like steps of tectonic origin as well as ridges of mud volcano complexes. Formation of landslides near the Bolshoi Ushkany island in the second half of the Holocene is associated with the seismotectonic activity of the territory. The established features of the ridge’s relief show that the leading role in its creation and further development belongs to tectonic movements of different ages and to modern seismotectonic processes.