Vol 50, No 1 (2016)

The spatial, chronological, and genetic relationships of recent (Late Alpine) collisions to mountain building are considered at three levels of scale: (i) in separate zones of the Arabian–Caucasus segment of the Alpine–Himalayan Orogenic Belt, (ii) throughout the central segment of this belt from the Alps to the Himalalayas, and (iii) in Central Asia and other mountain belts of continents. Three stages of mountain building are distinguished at all three levels. The first stage starts with widespread collision and similar plate interactions from the end of the Eocene to the middle Miocene and is expressed in the formation of uplifts, commonly no higher than the moderately elevated level in regions that concentrate deformations of transverse shortening induced by compression. The second short stage, which embraces the Pliocene–Quaternary and occasionally the end of the Miocene, differs in general, though differentiated in the value and intensification of vertical movements, when the height of mountains increases by 2–3 times. Elevations are spread over certain platform territories and even frameworks of rift zones. This is related not so much to the intensity of compression and shortening as to the compositional transformation of the upper mantle and the lower crust, leading to their decompaction. Comparison with the Hercynian and Caledonian orogenic stages shows that the second phase, predetermined by widespread collision, reflects a more important geodynamic event expressed in a change of the global plate interaction system and its deep-seated sources.

Western, central, and eastern provinces are recognized in the Scotia Sea. They are distinguished by their bottom topography, geophysical characteristics, and crustal structure, which record their different origin and evolution. The western province is characterized by the oceanic crust that formed on the West Scotia Ridge, where active spreading may have ceased as a result of a collision between propagating rift and the structural barrier of the thick continental lithosphere of the Falkland Plateau. The central province is a series of blocks mainly composed of continental crust that subsided to various depths depending on the degree of extension in the course of rifting. These blocks are separated by local areas with oceanic crust formed due to the breakup of the continental crust and diffusive spreading. These areas are characterized by deep bottom and high values of Bouguer anomalies. The southern framework of the central province consists of subsided continental blocks and microcontinents divided by small spreading-type basins formed by lithospheric extension complicated by strike-slip faulting. The eastern province is composed of oceanic crust formed on the backarc spreading East Scotia Ridge. The results of density analysis, analog, and numerical simulations allowed us to explain some features of the structure and evolution of these provinces. The insight into tectonic structure of the provinces and their evolution allowed us to recognize several types of riftogenic basins differing in geodynamics, age, and geological and geophysical characteristics.

A comprehensive study of the Lower Palaeozoic complexes of the Kokchetav Massif and its fringing has been carried out. It has allowed for the first time to discover and investigate in detail the stratified and intrusive complexes of the Cambrian–Early Ordovician. Fossil findings and isotope geochronology permitted the determination of their ages. The tectonic position and internal structures of those complexes have also been defined and their chemical features have been analyzed as well. The obtained data allowed us to put forward a model of the geodynamic evolution of Northern Kazakhstan in the Late Ediacaran–Earliest Ordovician. The accumulation of the oldest Ediacaran to Earliest Cambrian siliciclastics and carbonates confined to the Kokchetav Massif and its fringing occurred in a shallow shelf environment prior to its collision with the Neoproterozoic Daut island arc: complexes of the latter have been found in the northeast of the studied area. The Early Cambrian subduction of the Kokchetav Massif under the Daut island arc, their following collision and exhumation of HP complexes led to the formation of rugged ground topography, promoting deposition of siliceous–clastic and coarse clastic units during the Middle to early Late Cambrian. Those sediments were mainly sourced from eroded metamorphic complexes of the Kokchetav Massif basement. At the end of the Late Cambrian to the Early Ordovician within the boundaries of the massif with the Precambrian crust, volcanogenic and volcano-sedimentary units along with gabbros and granites with intraplate affinities were formed. Simultaneously in the surrounding zones, which represent relics of basins with oceanic crust, N-MORB- and E-MORB-type ophiolites were developed. These complexes originated under extensional settings occurred in the majority of the Caledonides of Kazakhstan and Northern Tian Shan. In the Early Floian Stage (Early Ordovician) older heterogeneous complexes were overlain by relatively monotonous siliceous–clastic units, that were being deposited until the Middle Darrivilian Stage (Middle Ordovician).