Neotectonic Fault Pattern of the Salair Area (Southern West Siberia): Relation with the Pre-Cenozoic Tectonic Framework

Abstract

Abstract —Neotectonic activity in the area of the Salair Ridge (southern West Siberia) rejuvenated a system of large arc-shaped faults separating the Salair tectonic arc from the adjacent tectonic units. These regional faults, which make up the general tectonic framework of the Altai–Sayan Folded Area, originated in the late Paleozoic and were repeatedly reactivated in the Mesozoic. The deformation within the major Salair thrust sheet is mainly brittle and follows small fault planes that crosscut the margins of Paleozoic thrusts. The neotectonic faulting has controlled the erosion pattern of the territory and produced a reticulate drainage system. The Salair tectonic unit is a single 80 × 250 km block consisting of multiple neotectonic blocks, with relative vertical offset no more than 100 m in the block interior and 100–200 m in its southern, northern, and eastern borders. The northwestern and southeastern border faults have reverse slip geometry, while the motions on the en-echelon northeastern fault boundary include reverse and right-lateral strike-slip components. The thickness of the Salair thrust sheet estimated from magnetotelluric (MT) data increases in the western direction from 5 to 15 km in the northern block part and from 10 to >20 km in the south. The allochthon base is delineated by a low-resistivity zone interpreted as a horizontal detachment. This boundary formed in the Mesozoic and was rejuvenated at the neotectonic stage. The lithology and deformation of Jurassic sediments filling piedmont basins around the Salair Ridge indicate that the Cenozoic fault pattern generally inherits the Mesozoic framework but differs in about ten times smaller vertical offset.