Structural and kinematic assemblies in sedimentary rocks of the Phanerozoic cover of the Mid-Russian Dislocation Zone

Abstract

The Mid-Russian Dislocation Zone is a large within-plate structural element of the East European Platform, which extends for more than 1100 km from the Timan Foredeep to the Orsha Basin. This deep, long-lived zone was formed against a background of changeable geodynamic settings, including (1) Late Paleoproterozoic collision events, (2) Late Riphean-Early Vendian epicontinental rifting, (3) Late Vendian-Early Triassic intraplatform tectogenesis with formation of horst-like uplifts within the zone against the background of general subsidence, and (4) Mesozoic-Cenozoic within-plate reactivation. At the final Kimmerian-Alpine stage of its evolution, the Mid-Russian Zone developed as a left-lateral transpressional structure with penetrative dissipative shear deformation resulting in the general horizontal transfer of Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks. The dislocations were manifested as two dynamically conjugate structural forms: a zone of scattered shearing and a bedding-plane tectonic flow. The dynamic manifestation of the Mid-Russian and the conjugate Belomorian-Dvina zones, which make up a common arcuate structure (in plan view), allowed us to outline the Dvina-Sukhona plate-flow with horizontal mass transfer in the southeastern direction. The tectonics of the Mid-Russian Dislocation Zone is considered in this paper with particular emphasis on the structural and kinematic assemblies in sedimentary rocks of the Phanerozoic cover.