Vol 480, No 1 (2018)

An event-based depositional model for the Paleocene—Eocene sandy–clayey–siliceous deposits of the Russian Platform was proposed. The model was based on pulsational input of pyroclastic material and intrusion of sandy injectites. These processes should be taken into account to identify the stratigraphic position of the Paleocene–Eocene lithostratigraphic units in the eastern, southeastern, and southern parts of the Russian Platform.

The model of supercontinent cycles is revisited on the basis of reevaluation of existing ideas on the geodynamics and tectonics of granulite gneiss belts and areals. Granulite-gneiss belts and areals of a regional scale correspond to mantle–plume (superplume) activity and form the major components of intracontinental orogens. The evolution of geodynamic settings of the Earth’s crust origin can be imagined as a “spiral sequence”: (1) interaction of mantle plumes and “embryonic” microplate tectonics during the Paleo- Mesoarchean (~3.80–2.75 Ga); (2) plume-tectonics and local plume-driven plate-tectonics within supercontinent during Neoarchean and Proterozoic (~2.75–0.85 Ga); (3) plate tectonics in the Phanerozoic along with a reduced role of mantle plumes starting from ~0.85 Ga.

U–Pb dating of zircon from amphibole latite of the central stock of the Nikolka shield volcano in Kamchatka provided the first data on its age. The end of activity falls to about 0.73 Ma (10 analyses). The local U–Pb analyses were carried out at the Isotope Research Center, Schmidt Joint Institute of Physics of the Earth (St. Petersburg) (VSEGEI) using SIMS SHRIMP II. Here, brief information about the geological structure, petrography, and chemistry of the rocks of the volcano are presented. A unique feature of the volcano is the occurrence of a gabbro–anorthosite sheet intrusion with derivates of monzonite and syenite composition in its central part. The correlation of the age obtained with the paleomagnetic data, indicating the formation of the volcano during the magnetic age of Matuyama, is also discussed. The date refers to the period of the change in epochs from the Brunhes to the Matuyama. The obtained age allows dating of the Pliocene volcanic stage in Kamchatka, when large shield volcanoes and plateaus formed.

On the basis of the lithological and mineral composition of chalk, it is concluded that it was formed under various facial conditions. Carbonate sediment accumulated at a shallow depth and underwent wave movements. No correlation is found between the lithological chalk types and the facial conditions of precipitation of the carbonate sediment.

Petrochemical study and U–Pb SIMS (SHRIMP–II) zircon analyses of subalkaline leucogranite of the Khariusikha Massif have been carried out. They have revealed for the first time a rare-metal mineralization. The elevated concentrations of rare elements (wt %) are Nb (0.5–0.7), Ta (0.12–0.16), REEs (0.08–0.24), Y (0.06–0, 1), Zr (2.3–2.6), Hf (0.1–0.12), U (0.05–0.1), and Th (0.08–0.1) and are confined to albitized granites. The main mineral phases concentrating the rare elements, U and Th, are tantalo–niobates: fergusonite, euxenite, U–pyrochlore, tantalite, as well as thorite, monazite, zircon, and sphene. These minerals associate with cassiterite, sulfides, and gold. The simultaneity of the intraplate granitoid magmatism (753 ± 4 Ma) and bimodal rhyolite–basalt volcanism (753 ± 6 Ma) in the neighboring rift structure has been demonstrated. Presumably, the Neoproterozoic rifting and intraplate magmatism relate to the plume activity that caused the supercontinent Rodinia to break up.

Corundum-containing and corundum-free plagioclasites localized in chromite-bearing ultramafites of the Rai-Iz Massif were explored for the composition and age. The composition of rock-forming minerals was studied, and the geochemical characteristics of the rocks were ascertained. The isotope age of plagioclasites determined by zircons using the U–Pb mode with a SHRIMP II device was equal to 398 ± 3 Ma. The age found conformed to the boundary on most of the Rai-Iz Massif took place against the background of a starting powerful collision, which caused the formation of the chromium mineralization of a high-chromic type, as well as the separation of a series of essentially plagioclase rocks of ruby mineralization at the discharge zones of the vein series.

Liquation structures were described in ultrahigh-pressure impact glasses of the Kara astrobleme (Pay-Khoy) with differentiation into the bisilica, aluminosilicate, and ore components for the first time. The sequence of differentiation of mineral phases upon solidification of an ultrahigh-pressure impact melt was established: coesite, silicate glass, augite, aluminosilicate glass of albite composition, and pyrite. The discovered impact glasses are highly resistant to postimpact alterations.

For the first time, the dynamics of the origination and growth of monodispersion spherical silica particles is studied by dynamic light scattering in the real-time mode. Experimental changes in the particle size and intensity of scattering during their formation and growth indicate the hierarchical formation of silica globules under various mechanisms of aggregation of particles.

Using the methods of electron spectroscopy of the surface and SEM–EDS, it is shown that native gold of the deposit related to the epithermal Au–Ag ore formation contains oxidized gold with an oxidation degree of Au (I) or higher on the surface. A thin layer (~15 nm) with high concentrations of Ag and S and an underlying SiO₂-bearing layer with a thickness of ~30–60 nm play a protective role providing preservation of Ag and Au sulfides in the surface parts of the Au–Ag grains under the oxidizing conditions. S-rich marginal parts of native gold particles may be represented by solid solutions Ag_2–xAu_xS or (with a lack of S) by agglomerates of Ag_nAu_mS clusters. The formation of surface zoning in the nanoscale on the surface of native Au is abundant in nature and may be applied in prospecting.

This work presents new data on the Hf-isotope systematics of baddeleyite and the Nd-isotope compositions of calcite carbonatites of the Guli massif, located within the Maimecha–Kotui province. The Hf–Nd isotope signatures of carbonatites (εHf ~ 10.4, εNd ~ 5.8) indicate that depleted mantle material was involved during magma generation. The application of the Hf–Nd isotope systematics provided an essential tracer for the depleted mantle contribution into the source of carbonatites from the Guli Massif.

New data on local mineral associations and the microheterogeneity of minerals and fluid inclusions in gabbro were obtained for the gabbro–peridotite oceanic core complex with a long-lived detachment fault controlling the hydrothermal activity. It is assumed that the hydrothermal hydrogen-bearing fluid with a NaCl content of >30 wt % is formed in the seawater/harzburgite (~1/5) reaction of serpentinization. The brine residual after serpentinization interacted with gabbro at the final stages of crystallization of an intrusion and assimilated some components (K, REEs, and Ba) from the residual melt. The interaction was resulted in metamorphic transformations of gabbro at decreasing temperature below 500°C. The reaction of the decomposition of magmatic titanomagnetite with the transition of iron reduced to Fe²⁺ into newly formed chlorinebearing amphibole at 540–450°C and logf(O₂) from–20 to–24 is shown.

The peculiarities of catastrophic earthquakes that occurred in the Northwest Pacific region on January 13, 2007, and January 15, 2007, east of the Kuril Islands and the Tohoku megaearthquake of March 11, 2011, east of Japan are considered and analyzed. It is revealed that these earthquakes, apart from the fact that they occurred in the transition zone from the Pacific to island arcs and the Eurasian continent, have common features and similar characteristics. The seismotectonic slip in the source of the chronologically first event, the 2006 Kuril earthquake, was a gentle thrust, while that of the second event of January 13, 2007, was a downthrow beneath the Kuril deep trench.

Using data from the AIRS satellite instrument for the period of 2003–2016, the correlation between the regional anomalies of methane content in the atmosphere and the anomaly of the surface temperature in the northwestern Siberia, in particular, on the Yamal Peninsula in the summer of 2016, is analyzed. Quantitative estimates of the regional anomalies, trends, and sensitivity of variations in the methane content in the atmosphere to variations in the surface temperature at the interdiurnal and interannual scales are obtained. The characteristics of the large-scale atmospheric circulation that contributed to the formation of the anomalous temperature regime over northwestern Siberia and resulted in an increase in methane content in the atmosphere are described.

New structural data obtained by a geophysical survey during Cruise 69 of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in 2017 indicate that the Khatanga−Lomonosov fault zone is presently active and propagating in Khatanga Bay. The orientation of conjugated extension and compression structures points to the sinistral displacement along this zone. The results confirm the concept that this zone represents a transform fault separating Gakkel Ridge from the rift system of the Laptev Sea shelf.

The parameters of barotropic and baroclinic oscillations in the subinertial range have been obtained by numerical simulations of the Black Sea circulation using a model developed at the Marchuk Institute of Numerical Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences. The structures and periods of barotropic and baroclinic seiches are in good agreement with the known theoretical predictions and results of numerical modeling of seiches obtained for the Black Sea subbasins.

Studies of lakes at different stages of separation from the sea have been carried out on the northwestern coast of Kandalaksha Gulf of the White Sea. At the end of the winter period, from March 16 to 29, 2013, the lakes Kislo–Sladkoe, Trekhtzvetnoe, Nizhnee Ershovskoe, Ermolinskaya Bay and snow near the pier of Pertsov White Sea Biological Station of Moscow State University (WSBS MSU) were studied. The isotope characteristics of the water of lakes, ice and snow, the distribution of salinity, temperature, and hydrogen sulfide content were studied.

According to historical oceanographic data, anomalies in the dynamic topography during the winter period were calculated and two climatic stages of dynamic condition of the Arctic Ocean were defined: 1949–1993 and 2007–2013. The associativity of opposition of anomalies in the dynamic topography of the Eurasian and Amerasian basins with fluctuations in the thermal condition of the Northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the indexes of atmospheric circulation, river runoff, and change in the area of ice in August of the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas is established.