Pleistocene sediments of Lake Baikal: Lithology and stratigraphic correlation

Abstract

The Cenozoic sediments of Lake Baikal penetrated by boreholes and investigated by the manned submersible Pisces, as well as coeval deposits cropping out in beach scarps, recovered by mine workings, and drilled in the coastal zone were the object of this investigation. The main attention was paid to Pleistocene bottom sediments penetrated by Borehole BDP-99-2. The investigations included the detailed analysis of the lithology (grain-size composition, immersion mineralogy of light and heavy fractions, X-ray structural analysis of clayey fraction) and palynological assemblages to specify facies features of Cenozoic sediments, correlate all their known stratigraphic units constituting the sedimentary section of the lake with their analogs in the onshore part of the Baikal rift zone, and compile the composite Cenozoic section. The following features of these sediments are noted: (1) as a whole, Pleistocene sediments are characterized by the hydromica-smectite composition of their clayey fraction with an insignificant share of kaoline; (2) the heavy fraction is dominated by the terrigenous epidote-amphibole association poorly resistant to weathering; (3) Pleistocene sediments of the lake contain siderite, vivianite, pyrite, and goethite concretions and micrometeorites, in addition to well-known ferromanganese nodules; (4) the presence of relict palynomorphs in Pleistocene sediments of Baikal is determined by their erosion from Miocene and Pliocene cavernous clays cropping out on underwater slopes of the Posol’skaya Bank and subsequent reburial along with Pleistocene palynological assemblages.