Neotectonics of the Deryugin Basin area (Sea of Okhotsk)

Abstract

The data of the bottom “summit” surface were used for compiling the schematic structural-neotectonic map and map of the main neotectonic structural elements. Their comparison with the schematic paleogeographic maps of the lithophysical complexes for four periods (K2-\( _{1 - 2} \), \( \rlap{--} P_3 \)-N11, N11–2, and N13-N2) reveals that the largest part of the considered area was characterized by either a continental or relatively shallow-sea environment, except for the western areas occupied at that time by the relatively deep trough with its axis located substantially westward of the neotectonic Deryugin Basin and the Staritskii Trough. In the Late Pliocene, the deep paleotrough (\( \rlap{--} P_3 \)-N22) and Deryugin Basin were likely occupied by shelf settings with continuing sedimentation. The paleogeographic environments of the area for the period from the terminal Pliocene to the late Riss (Taz) Glaciation (Q26; MIS6) are unknown so far. The most complete Quaternary section recovered by Core LV 28-34-2 consists of six units; the odd (1, 3, and 5) and even (2, 4, and 6) among them correspond to the warm and cold marine isotopic stages, respectively. Judging from the benthic foraminiferal assemblages, the water depths during cold periods were shallower as compared with the warm stages, which is explained by the respective ascending and descending bottom movements and, partially, by the eustatic sea level fluctuations. In the Late Pleistocene-Holocene (∼17 ka), the bottom of the Deryugin Basin and the summit part of the Institut Okeanologii Rise subsided with average rates of 8 and 3 cm/year, respectively.