Volume 470, Nº 2 (2016)

This paper analyzes the ratio of local and regional anomalies of fluid saturation identified in the southern margins of the Eastern European Platform by remote fluid indexation. A characteristic feature of this area is the very low background values in the initial field, i.e., local anomalies reflecting the deposits. Regional anomalies are mainly related to oil and gas accumulation zones. In the Middle Caspian areas studied, the regional field of the fluid saturation index is the background for local anomalies. We made an attempt to justify the hydrocarbon migration and generation zones as anomaly-forming zones of the regional anomalies. The correlation of oil and gas accumulation zones with the regional field anomalies was noted.

The layer forming the Earth’s solid cover is considered to be a uniformly cooling mantle body of low viscosity involved in the convection process. Its cooling is accompanied by the formation of Rayleigh–Benard cells transformed into primary blocks. Their dimensions and dynamics in the subsequent evolution of the Earth’s lithosphere were repeatedly disturbed by superglobal geodynamic cycles involving changes in the area and dynamics of the blocks, some of which were partially absorbed by the mantle, while others were generated for the first time up to the current state. The variably ranked lithosphere blocks transformed into linear dimensions were arranged in a logical series of lithosphere destruction: from convection of the cooling Earth and initial block divisibility of the protolithosphere to its recent plate tectonics and intensive variably ranked fragmentation and fracturing of the plates under the conditions of solid body fragmentation. Convection in the mantle is a genetic endogenic source of the first protolithosphere divisibility. Megablock and subsequent lithosphere divisibility are consistent with the process of crushing of a solid body.

The Lower Cambrian Usol’e Formation in the Kamov arch of the Baikit anteclise includes stratiform intrusions confined to several levels. According to isotopic‒geochronological investigations, the age of stratiform intrusions composed of olivine dolerites is estimated to be 256.0 ± 3.2 Ma.

The mineral chemistry and crystal morphology of kimberlite pyropes from the Billyakh River placer in the northeastern Siberian craton are characterised in terms of the placer history. The pyropes bear signatures of chemical weathering (dissolution), presumably in a Middle Paleozoic laterite profile, and therefore were originally hosted by Middle Paleozoic kimberlites. The broad occurrence of placer pyropes with lateritic dissolution signatures points to the presence of Middle Paleozoic diamond-bearing kimberlites in the study area.

Platinum is revealed by the authors in the Mn ores from the South Khingan deposit of Malyi Khingan. Its quality (grain size, aggregates) and amount are of economic interest. Platinum has higher contents of Fe, Cu, Mn, Ni, Os, and other metals. The Pt potential is related to carbonaceous metasomatites, which replaced fluidolites.

The decontamination of buried wastes of the Tyrnyauz Tungsten–Molybdenum Plant is complicated by the geochemical features of the waste composition: low sulfide and high carbonate content, polyelemental composition, and considerable amounts of technogenic admixtures (kerosene, oils, soda, and soluble glasses). These circumstances result in sufficient complication of the suggested technology of waste treatment, including the sulfuric-acid leaching and separate sorption recovery of hazardous and useful elements from the working solution.

The staged high-pressure annealing of natural cubic diamonds with numerous melt microinclusions from the Internatsional’naya kimberlite pipe was studied experimentally. The results mainly show that the carbonate phases, the daughter phases in partially crystallized microinclusions in diamonds, may undergo phase transformations under the mantle P–T conditions. Most likely, partial melting and further dissolution of dolomite in the carbonate–silicate melt (homogenization of inclusions) occur in inclusions. The experimental data on the staged high-pressure annealing of diamonds with melt microinclusions allow us to estimate the temperature of their homogenization as 1400–1500°C. Thus, cubic diamonds from the Internatsional’naya pipe could have been formed under quite high temperatures corresponding to the lithosphere/asthenosphere boundary. However, it should be noted that the effect of selective capture of inclusions with partial loss of volatiles in relation to the composition of the crystallization medium is not excluded during the growth. This may increase the temperature of their homogenization significantly between 1400 and 1500°C.

The geodynamic position of the productive Kevaktinskii and Dal’netaiginskii stratigraphic units with Au–U mineralization is considered within the Baikal–Patom highland. The Au–U specialization of rocks of the Kevaktinskaya Group results from its formation in the environments of the passive continental margin with introduction of the juvenile material related to riftogenesis and further collision, whereas the same specialization of the Dal’netaiginskaya Group is explained by exhalation activity in the back-arc spreading zone. The formation of most of the Au and U large-scale deposits within the southern environs of the Siberian Craton was controlled by Paleozoic oogenesis upon closure of the Paleoasian Ocean.

The geochemical and Sm–Nd isotope characteristics of Late Precambrian and Early Cambrian sandstones previously related to the sedimentary cover of the Dzabkhan continental block are reported. It is established that the Riphean and Vendian sedimentary rocks of the Ul’zitgol’skaya and Tsaganolomskaya Formations were accumulated within the Dzabkhan continental block as a result of recycling of the terrigenous deposits formed at the expense of destruction of basement rocks and younger granite. The formation of terrigenous rocks of the Bayangol’skaya Formation after a gap in sedimentation occurred in the sedimentary basin, where only the Late Riphean formations of the juvenile crust, probably of the Dzabkhan–Mandal block were the sources, without the contribution of the ancient crustal material. The Tsaganolomskaya and Bayangol’skaya Formations were formed in different sedimentary basins and cannot be related to the same complex.

The variations in ²³⁸U/²³⁵U values accompanying mobilization of U by fracture waters from uranium-bearing rocks, in which U occurs as a fine impregnation of oxides and silicates, were studied by the high-precision (±0.07‰) MC–ICP–MS method. Transition of U into the aqueous phase in the oxidized state U(VI) is accompanied by its isotope fractionation with enrichment of dissolved U(VI) in the heavy isotope ²³⁸U up to 0.32‰ in relation to the composition of the solid phases. According to the sign, this effect is consistent with the tendency of the behavior of ²³⁸U and ²³⁵U upon interaction of river waters with rocks of the catchment areas [11] and with the effect observed during oxidation of uraninite by the oxygen-bearing NaHCO₃ solution [12].

This paper considers gas outflow from the agglomerate composed of gas-saturated ice, free gas, and gas hydrates. The agglomerate is considered to be a multicomponent continuous medium.

This study continues detailed investigations on the construction of regional charts of the parameters of the generalized Guttenberg–Richter Law, which takes into account the properties of the spatiotemporal seismic energy scaling. We analyzed the parameters of the law in the vicinity of the intersections of morphostructural lineaments in Crimea and Greater Caucasus. It was shown that ignoring the fractal character of the spatial distribution of earthquakes in the southern part of the Russian Federation can lead to significant underestimation of the seismic hazard in the largest cities of the region.

A new method for controlling the dynamic shear stiffness of interblock contact during stick-slip is proposed. This method enables us to reveal changes in the mechanical properties of the contact long before the macroscopic slip will be recorded. In the experiments conducted, the time of precursor manifestation was about 1/3 of the duration of the “seismic cycle.”

The conditions of formation of massive ice near the South Tambey gas-condensate field in northern Yamal Peninsula are studied. It is shown that massive ice bodies up to 4.5 m thick occur in the Holocene deposits of the high laida and the first terrace. Therefore, they cannot be the remains of glaciers; they are ground ice formations. All three types of massive ice have quite various isotopic compositions: the values of δD range from–107 to–199.7, and δ¹⁸O from–15.7 to–26.48‰. Such a significant differentiation in isotopic composition is a result of cryogenic fractionation in a freezing water-saturated sediment. The most negative isotope values are even lower in this Holocene massive ice than in the Late Pleistocene ice-wedge ice of Yamal Peninsula.

Free internal gravity waves, which are typical of the shelf ocean zone are studied. A necessary condition for the existence of nonlinear wave disturbances quasi-periodic in time in a continuously stratified sea with variable depth H is found in the quasistatic and the “hard cap” approximation with respect to dissipative factors and latitudinal variation in the Coriolis parameter. The obtained assessment is equivalent to the condition obtained within the framework of linear theory for the case of the f-plane and a constant depth H.