Том 50, № 4 (2016)

The Ysyk-Köl Basin filled with Lower Jurassic–Quaternary sedimentary rocks is the largest intermontane negative structural unit of the northern Tien Shan. The basement of this basin is composed of Precambrian–Paleozoic rocks, largely of Ordovician and Silurian granitoids exposed in mountain ranges of the basin framework and as separate anticlinal domes situated in areas occupied by the Mesozoic–Cenozoic sedimentary cover. The postmagmatic tectonic internalstructure of the Chonkurchak (Chunkurchak), Kyzyl-Choku, Kyzyl-Bulak, and Prishib massifs emplaced in the basement, as well as their relationships to the sedimentary cover, are described in the paper. The study was carried out using the morphostructural method, detailed geological mapping, structural kinematic analysis, and petrographic examination of rocks. The internalstructure of Paleozoic granites in the basement and indications of their 3D tectonic flow are characterized. It is shown that granites underwent 3D deformation after their emplacement in the consolidated crust, and this process had a substantial influence on tectonic processes at the plate and orogenic stages of regional evolution.

Extended along the Crimea–Caucasus coast of the Black Sea, the Crimean Seismic Zone (CSZ) is an evidence of active tectonic processes at the junction of the Scythian Plate and Black Sea Microplate. A relocation procedure applied to weak earthquakes (m_b ≤ 3) recorded by ten local stations during 1970–2013 helped to determine more accurately the parameters of hypocenters in the CSZ. The Kerch–Taman, Sudak, Yuzhnoberezhnaya (South Coast), and Sevastopol subzones have also been recognized. Generalization of the focal mechanisms of 31 strong earthquakes during 1927–2013 has demonstrated the predominance of reverse and reverse–normal-faulting deformation regimes. This ongoing tectonic process occurs under the settings of compression and transpression. The earthquake foci with strike-slip component mechanisms concentrate in the west of the CSZ. Comparison of deformation modes in the western and eastern Crimean Mountains according to tectonophysical data has demonstrated that the western part is dominated by strike-slip and normal- faulting, while in the eastern part, reverse-fault and strike-slip deformation regimes prevail. Comparison of the seismicity and gravity field and modes of deformation suggests underthusting of the East Black Sea Microplate with thin suboceanic crust under the Scythian Plate. In the Yuzhnoberezhnaya Subzone, this process is complicated by the East Black Sea Microplate frontal part wedging into the marginal part of the Scythian Plate crust. The indentation mechanism explains the strong gravity anomaly in the Crimean Mountains and their uplift.

The contemporary structure of the West Sakhalin Terrane started to form in the Pleistocene and the process of its formation continues up to now in a setting of ENE (60°–90°) shortening. Evidence of the preceding NE (30°–45°) compression was revealed during the study. This compression prevailed in the Eocene–Pliocene. Under the settings of NE (30°–45°) compression, dextral displacements occurred along the West Sakhalin and Tym’–Poronai fault systems, bounding the West Sakhalin Terrane.