Eurasian Continental Research Articles

Пространственное развитие России в контексте формирования Большой Евразии: факторы, векторы, приоритеты

Contemporary Russia’s spatial development is markedly affected by profound geoeconomic and geopolitical shifts, progressively more visible in terms of magnitude and repercussions. For Russia, the positive impact of these changes has become increasingly linked to the emergence of the Greater Eurasia macro-structure. This article aims to develop a contemporary conceptual approach to Greater Eurasia as a socio-geographical mega-structure given Russia’s oppo­sition to the collective West. Additionally, it seeks to identify, using this approach, the strate­gic interests, opportunities and limitations of Russia’s spatial dynamics on the path towards Eurasian continentalism, which promotes transboundary cooperation and mutually supportive co-development of Eurasian states. The focus of this contribution is on the most crucial con­temporary trends and principal contradictions in the transformation of the Russian space. The study provides a picture of the framework of ‘greater’ Eurasian integration, emphasising its connection to intensifying interregional and inter-municipal interactions. A rationale is out­lined for shifting the country’s economic activity towards the east and north, with priorities identified given the inertia of spatial processes and the growing significance of Siberia in the Russian space. The potential and efficiency of prolonging the ‘Moscow-centric’ arrangement of the Russian space are assessed from the perspective of ensuring the multidirectional develop­ment of the latter. Special attention is paid to the ‘municipalisation’ of approaches to the strate­gic planning of Russia’s spatial development in the context of Eurasian continental integration.

Preliminary Study of Landslide Hazard in Kutai Kartanegara Regency, East Kalimantan using Digital Elevation Model

The Kalimantan Island is part of the Sundaland crust, namely the Eurasian Continental Plate. The plate is moving to the southeast colliding with the Indo-Australian plate which is moving north. Whereas for Kutai Kartanegara Regency in the Kalimantan Island position is far from the collision zone, so it is relatively stable tectonically. This is important to research that is, due to tectonic processes that occurred earlier, resulting in the formation of geological structures, especially faults. The purpose of the study was to determine the morphotectonic and landslide hazards in the Kutai Kartanegara Regency, where this research was carried out quantitatively with data collection techniques, then analyse landslide hazards based on data; DEM (Digital Elevation Model) including the slope, slope direction, and slope length for vulnerability analysis, geological data from Regional Geological Maps, which include rock formations, distances from faults data and administrative boundary spatial data in the form of vector GIS for the preparation of landslide hazard maps. The result showing Kutai Kartanegara predominantly categorized as moderate to high hazard zone. The low hazard zone covering 9.88% area, moderate hazard zone covering 35.81% area, and 54.31% area is high hazard zone of landslide. The analysis showing that the hazard of the research area consist predominantly sedimentary rocks and controlled by structural geology identified as thrust fault, strike slip fault, and fold which include in Anticlinorium Samarinda. Those lithology and geological structure features along with the slope are identified as controlling factor to the landslide hazard in the research area.

Comparative analysis of driving forces of land use/cover change in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Selenga River Basin

The Selenga River Basin is an important section of the Sino-Mongolian Economic Corridor. It is an important connecting part of the Eurasian Continental Bridge and an important part of Northeast Asia. Comparative analysis of land use changes and their driving forces in the middle and lower reaches of the watershed is an important tool to reveal regional ecosystem changes, which is of great scientific guidance to ensure regional ecological security. This paper takes Selenge County in the upper reaches of Selenga River Basin, Sukhbaatar City in the middle reaches and Ulan-Ude City in the lower reaches as the case areas to compare and analyse the land use change changes based on Landsat remote sensing image data. The partial least squares regression model is used to discuss the driving forces by combining natural and socio-economic factors. The results show the following: (1) Selenge County is overloaded with overgrazing; Sukhbaatar city, as a region with very suitable soil and water conditions in Mongolia, the area of cultivated land is expanding. Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in Ulan-Ude, the abandonment of farming has been severe due to the reduction of the agricultural population, resulting in a reduction in the area of cultivated land. (2) The upper reaches of the region should focus on preventing overgrazing, which leads to desertification. In the middle reaches, it is necessary to prevent the over-cultivation of cultivated land. In the lower reaches, the damage to the Lake Baikal ecosystem, a natural heritage of mankind, should be prevented by the rapid expansion of urban space.

Shelf-Sourced Methane in Surface Seawater at the Eurasian Continental Slope (Arctic Ocean)

This study traces the pathways of dissolved methane at the Eurasian continental slope (ECS) and the Siberian shelf break based on data collected during the NABOS-II expedition in August-September, 2013. We focus on the sea ice-ocean interface during seasonal strong ice melt. Our analysis reveals a patchy pattern of methane supersaturation related to the atmospheric equilibrium. We argue that sea ice transports methane from the shelf and that ice melt is the process that causes the heterogeneous pattern of methane saturation in the Polar Mixed Layer (PML). We calculate the solubility capacity and find that seasonal warming of the PML reduces the CH4 storage capacity and contributes to methane supersaturation and potential sea-air flux in summer. Cooling in autumn enhances the solubility capacity in the PML once again. The shifts in the solubility capacity indicate the buffering capacity for seasonal storage of atmospheric and marine methane in the PML. We discuss specific pathways for marine methane and the storage capacity of the PML on the ECS as a sink/source for atmospheric methane and methane sources from the Siberian shelf. The potential sea-air flux of methane is calculated and intrusions of methane plumes from the PML into the Cold Halocline Layer are described.

Analysis of Land Use/Cover Change and Driving Forces in the Selenga River Basin.

The Selenga River basin is an important section of the Sino-Mongolian Economic Corridor. It is an important connecting piece of the Eurasian Continental Bridge and an important part of Northeast Asia. Against the background of the evolution of the geopolitical pattern since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and global warming, based on the land cover data in the Selenga River basin from 1992, 2000, 2009, and 2015, this paper describes the dynamic changes in land use in the basin. Through a logistic model, the driving factors of land cover change were revealed, and the CA-Markov model was used to predict the land cover pattern of 2027. The results showed that (1) from 1992 to 2015, the agricultural population in the Selenga River basin continued to decrease, which led to a reduction in agricultural sown area. The intensification of climate warming and drying had a significant impact on the spatial distribution of crops. Grassland expansion mostly occurred in areas with relatively abundant rainfall, low temperature, and low human activity. (2) The simulation results showed that, according to the current development trend, the construction land area of the Selenga River basin will be slightly expanded in 2027, the area of arable land and grassland will be slightly reduced, and the areas of forest, water/wetland, and bare land will remain stable. In the future, human activities in the basin will increase in the process of the construction of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. Coupled with global warming, the land/cover of the basin will be affected by both man-made and natural disturbances, and attention should be paid to the possible risk of vegetation degradation.

Explicating the mechanisms of land cover change in the New Eurasian Continental Bridge Economic Corridor region in the 21st century

Explicating the mechanisms of land cover change in the New Eurasian Continental Bridge Economic Corridor region in the 21st century

Tectono-Geodynamic Settings in the Conjugation Zone of the Lomonosov Ridge, Eurasian Basin, and Eurasian Continental Margin

Tectono-Geodynamic Settings in the Conjugation Zone of the Lomonosov Ridge, Eurasian Basin, and Eurasian Continental Margin

Mesozoic–Cenozoic Tectonic Evolution and Uplift in Pamir: Application of Fission Track Thermochronology

AbstractThe Pamir Plateau can be divided into three secondary tectonic units from north to south: the North, the Middle and the South Pamir Blocks. The North Pamir Block belonged to the southern margin of Tarim‐Karakum, thermochronological study of the Pamir structural intersection indicates that accretion of the Middle Pamir Block to the Eurasian Continental Margin and its subduction and collision with the North Pamir Block occurred in the Middle–Late Jurassic. Due to the Neo‐Tethys closure in the Early Cretaceous, the South Pamir Block began to collide with the accretion (the Middle Pamir Block) of the Eurasian Continental Margin. Affected by the collision and continuous convergence between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate since the Cenozoic, Pamir is in a multi‐stage differential uplift process. During 56.1–48.5 Ma, North Pamir took the lead in uplifting, that is, the first rapid uplift in the Pamir region began there. The continuous compression and contraction of the Indian and Eurasian plates during 22.0–15.1 Ma forced the Pamir tectonic syntaxis to begin its overall uplift, i.e. Pamir began to enter the second rapid uplift stage in the Early Oligocene, which lasted until the Middle Miocene. During 14.6–8.5Ma, South Pamir was in a rapid uplift stage, while North Pamir was in a relatively stable state, showing asymmetry of tectonic deformation in the Pamir region in space. Since 6.5 Ma, Pamir began to rapidly uplift again.

Tectonic Structure of the Junction Zone between Lomonosov Ridge and the Eurasian Continental Margin

Tectonic Structure of the Junction Zone between Lomonosov Ridge and the Eurasian Continental Margin

Tomographic signatures and origin of the 2016 Meinung earthquake (Mw 6.7), Kaohsiung, SW Taiwan

Abstract In order to investigate the plausible generation mechanism of the 2016 Mw 6.7 Meinung earthquake, a large number of high-quality travel times of P- and S-wave source-receiver pairs are inverted to assimilate high resolution three-dimensional (3-D) seismic velocity (Vp, Vs) and Poisson’s ratio (σ) structures in this study. Our seismic imaging revealed that the 2016 Meinung earthquake occurred along a distinctive edge portion exhibiting high-to-low variations in these parameters in both horizontal and vertical directions across the hypocenter. A continuous low-velocity zone with high-σ is found to be intriguingly associated with the Laonung and Chisan faults where the western upper crust beneath the central coastal plain, western foothills, and southeastern lower crust under the central range are clearly imaged. We propose that weakening of the southeastern crust is attributed to the intrusion of fluids either from the young fold cum thrust fault belt in the shallow crust, or from the dehydration of the subducted Eurasian continental (EC) plate in the lower crust to the upper mantle. The earthquake genesis beneath SW Taiwan is associated with two predominant processes: (i) fluid intrusion into the upper Oligocene to the Pleistocene shallow marine and clastic, shelf units of the Eurasian continental crust; (ii) fluid intrusion into the relatively thin uppermost part of the transitional Pleistocene-Holocene foreland formed along the deformational front due to the subduction of the EC plate. Our estimated models demonstrate that the reduction of anomalous signatures of crustal attributes (Vp, Vs, σ) due to intrusion of fluids might have lowered the seismogenic strength of the source zone and contributed to the genesis of the 2016 Meinung mainshock.

Fluid-Rock Interaction During Hydrothermal Alteration at Parangtritis Geothermal Area, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

DOI: 10.17014/ijog.6.1.29-40Parangtritis Volcano is part of the Tertiary magmatic belt in Java, which was tectonically formed by collisions between the Eurasian Continental Plate and Indo-Australian Oceanic Plate. The collisions have taken place since Late Cretaceous and still continue until today. In that period, the magmatic belt in Java Island was formed and produced mineralization and geothermal. The characterization of geothermal in Tertiary volcanoes differs from the geothermal system that is on Quaternary volcano alignment in the middle of Java, such as: Awibengkok, Wayang Windu, Darajat, and Kamojang which have a high temperature. The purpose of this research is to study the mobilization elements due to interaction of hydrothermal fluids with wall rocks in low enthalpy geothermal regions of the Tertiary magmatic arc in Parangtritis. Identification of minerals and chemical element changes is approached by methods of petrographic and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses. As for knowing the composition and the origin of hydrothermal fluids, it used analyses of cations, anions, and isotope δ18O and δD of hot water manifestation. The occurrence of geothermal manifestations in Parangtritis, such as hot water and rock alteration, reflects the interaction of hydrothermal fluids with wall rocks which generates an argillic zone with mineral alteration such as quartz, calcite, montmorillonite, and hematite. The presence of alteration mineral montmorillonite replacing pyroxene provides an evidence that there have been interactions between the fluids and rocks. This interaction is as a process of element mobilization. Decrease in elements Si, Ca, Mg, and Fe is accompanied by an increase of Al during the replacement of pyroxene into montmorillonite. The mobility of this element occurs due to acid fluids. However, the hydrothermal fluid composition of the current hot water manifestation is neutral chloride water type composition, and the origin of the fluids is meteoric water (δ18O: -4.20 ‰ and δD: 23.43 ‰).

新亚欧大陆桥经济走廊土地覆被变化及驱动力分析

新亚欧大陆桥经济走廊土地覆被变化及驱动力分析

Impacts of Infrastructure on One Country’s Trade— An Analysis based on the “new Eurasian Continental Bridge Economic Corridor” along the “One Belt One Road”

In nowadays context of global economic integration, China has proposed the “One Belt One Road” Strategy in 2014, which fits into the new changes in global economy and finds us a new growth in economy development. This article has selected the panel data of 23 countries along the “new Eurasian Continental Bridge Economic Corridor” in 2002-2016 and analyzed the influences of one country’s economic infrastructure and social infrastructure upon its national trades using the fixed effect model. The research result shows that the construction of energy infrastructure may produce less obvious negative effects on one country’s national trade while the influences of the railway and aviation infrastructure will be varied because of the different natural endowments of the country. And one country’s trade will increase as construction of communication infrastructure develops. For social infrastructure, the effects upon one country’s trade are not obvious from education infrastructure construction, scientific research infrastructure construction, medical infrastructure construction and environmental infrastructure construction.

The resumption of Sino–Central Asian trade, c. 1983–94: confidence building and reform along a Cold War fault line

ABSTRACTThe resumption of trade across the Sino–Central Asian border in 1983 accompanied a gradual thaw in relations between China and the Soviet Union. This paper argues that: (1) Economic liberalization in China (alongside the Soviet Union) created a climate encouraging cross-border exchange. (2) Starting in 1983, improving relations between China and the Soviet Union permitted cross-border exchange in Central Asia; over the subsequent decade, trade volume served as a marker of bilateral relations. (3) Beginning in 1990, efforts by the Chinese leadership to accelerate reform in North-West China, coupled with the independence of Central Asian republics, led to a rapid increase in trade. Hence, the resumption of Sino–Central Asian trade was not grounded in meta-geographical projections – Silk Road, New Silk Road, Silk Road Economic Belt, Eurasian Continental Bridge – but determined by political and economic transitions in the two countries, accompanied by normalizing bilateral relations.

Late Cretaceous tectonic framework of the Tibetan Plateau

New research, coupled with previous data, reveals the Late Cretaceous paleo-geography, and related paleo-tectonic movement of the Tibetan Plateau. A vast ocean, the Neo-Tethys Ocean, perhaps as wide as ∼7000km, existed between the Indian and Eurasian Continental Plates in the early Late Cretaceous. In addition, a Himalaya Marginal Sea lay along the border of the Indian Plate and other marginal seas were present to the north in both the southern Lhasa and southwestern Tarim Blocks. Northward subduction of the Neo-Tethys Oceanic Plate along the Yalung-Zangbu Suture closed most of the ocean and led to intensive thrusting, tight folding, magmatic plutonism and volcanic eruptions in the central plateau to the north. A magmatic arc up to 500km wide formed across the southern margin of the continental plate in central Tibet and its varying granitic composition appears to reflect the depth to the subducted plate and define its geometry. A series of large, chiefly north-dipping thrust systems also developed across central Tibet. These include thrusts along the Yalung-Zangbu and Bangong-Nujiang Sutures, the North Gangdese and North Lhasa Thrusts in the Lhasa Block, the Qiangtang and North Tangula Thrusts in the Qiangtang block, the Hoh-Xil and Bayan Har Thrusts in the Hoh-Xil Block, as well as the sinistral-slip South Kunlun and Altyn Tagh Faults in northern Tibet. Uplifts formed above the hanging walls of the major thrusts and their eroded debris formed thick red-beds in basins below them. The central Tibetan Plateau maintained a low elevation and coastal vegetation was dominant during the Late Cretaceous.

Emerging Eurasian Continental Integration

The aim of this article is to review the tectonic changes in the structure of economic linkages in the Eurasian continent. Within the last two decades, the end of the autarky of China and the COMECON bloc led to a dramatic opening to the global economy and to cooperation within the Eurasian continent. This is particularly visible with regard to trade. It is also visible in investment, where Eurasia is not only more integrated but also multipolar. Emerging pervasive cooperation in the Eurasian landmass is primarily a bottom-up story, with intergovernmental cooperation lagging behind the rapid developments on the micro level of companies and people. Since Eurasian linkages are highly dependent on the development of common infrastructure, there has recently been a great deal of activity in this field. Still, the cross-border railway and automotive infrastructure and electric power linkages in particular remain hugely underdeveloped. On the normative side of the evolving Eurasian continent-wide cooperation and integration, there is a need for a deliberately low-key, pragmatic, and technocratic agenda. Institutional integration faces numerous hurdles in Greater Eurasia: the asymmetries of size; the level of development; and political regimes. These hurdles are unlikely to be overcome in the coming decades. Structuring cooperation according to a functional principle and focusing on such domains as physical infrastructure, some sector-specific and continent-relevant elements of regulatory convergence, as well as counteracting continent-wide issues of “shadow integration,” ranging from drug trafficking to epidemiological threats, is therefore crucial.

MERCHANTS, MARKETS, AND THE STATE

The end of the cold war witnessed the emergence of a commercial web sprawling from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in western China and extending into Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), Pakistan, and Russia. Running parallel to the state-managed exchange in hydrocarbons, raw materials, technology, and infrastructure, this new Eurasian trade had an informal component as everyday consumer items manufactured in China were imported into neighboring countries, bypassing formal regulatory mechanisms. This inter-Asian trade began as shuttle trading by itinerant merchants for local markets; by the mid 1990s, shuttle trading was overshadowed by largescale export for national markets in neighboring countries without losing its informal character. This informality extending across national boundaries defined the post–cold war commerce in innermost Asia; at the same time, it also signaled a return to pre-cold war trading structures. Moving away from the “retreat of the state” thesis that found traction following the cold war, the author attributes informality in this inter-Asian trade to three factors: (1) a restructuring of state power where informal trade was a new comparative advantage sought in an evolving geopolitical climate; (2) the actors in this inter-Asian trade—party and regional officials in China, along with traders and intermediaries—who found and exercised agency through this exchange; and (3) a chain of inter-locking, commercial macro-regions, which are economically sustainable and which transcended international boundaries. Working in conjunction, these factors constitute a dynamic inter-Asian trade and challenge static state imaginaries of a “New Silk Road” or “Eurasian Continental Bridge.”

Sediment‐enriched adakitic magmas from the Daisen volcanic field, Southwest Japan

The Quaternary Southwest Japan Arc is a product of subduction of the hot, young Philippine Sea Plate beneath the Eurasian Continental Plate. The magmas erupted from the Southwest Japan Arc belong to a category of magmas commonly referred to as “adakites” or “adakitic magmas”. These magmas show trace element evidence for interaction with garnet at depth, and may be associated with partial melting of subducted altered oceanic crust. Also found throughout the southern Sea of Japan region are alkali basalts with little apparent connection to the subduction zone. We have determined major element, trace element, and Sr, Nd, Pb, and U‐Th isotopic compositions for a bimodal suite of lavas erupted at the Daisen volcanic field in the Southwest Japan Arc. These magmas consist of mildly alkaline basalts and a calcalkaline intermediate suite, separated by a ∼10 wt.% silica gap. The intermediate magmas show trace element and isotopic evidence for interaction with garnet, consistent with partial melting of the hot, young (∼20 Ma) Philippine Sea Plate. The Daisen intermediate magmas are distinct from other adakitic magmas in their radiogenic isotopic characteristics, consistent with a significant contribution (∼25%) from subducted Nankai Trough sediments. Our data suggest that the basalts erupted at the Daisen volcanic field are not parental to the intermediate magmas, and contain a small contribution of EM1‐like mantle common in Sea of Japan alkali basalts but not apparent in the Daisen intermediate magmas.

Clay mineral composition and their sources for the fluvial sediments of Taiwanese rivers

Located at the collision boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Continental Plate, the island of Taiwan is generally recognized as an important example in the MARGINS Program Science Plan and “source-to-sink” research because of its high tectonic activity, heavy rainfall and unique geography. Large suspended sediment loads are transported to the adjacent ocean by Taiwanese rivers every year, making Taiwan an important source of sediments into the adjacent seas and a natural laboratory for studying the systemic movement of fluvial sediments from source to sink. A detailed study on the clay mineral composition of surface sediments collected from the drainage basins of 12 Taiwanese rivers using X-ray diffraction methods was conducted. Our results indicated that the clay mineral assemblages consisted dominantly of illite (approximately 73%) and chlorite (approximately 24%), with lesser abundances of kaolinite (approximately 3%) and even lower levels of smectite from the Danshuei River sediments in northwestern Taiwan. The Jhuoshuei River sediments from western Taiwan contained clay mineral assemblages that consisted of illite (approximately 75%) and chlorite (approximately 25%), but they lacked kaolinite and smectite. In southwestern Taiwan, the clay mineral assemblages were dominated by illite (approximately 75%) and chlorite (approximately 23%), but had a low abundance of kaolinite (generally < 2%) and no smectite. The clay mineral assemblages in eastern Taiwan are obviously different from those in western parts of the island. The most noticeable difference is that the average abundance of chlorite in the Hualien River from eastern Taiwan was the highest (approximately 48%) of all the Taiwanese rivers. We concluded that, in general, the clay mineral assemblages in Taiwanese rivers were mainly composed of illite and chlorite with kaolinite and smectite being scarce, and these trends are different from those in China’s mainland rivers. The clay mineral composition shown in this study was primarily determined by the properties of the bedrock, and the differential weathering intensities of the drainage area. The surface sediments in Taiwan’s rivers showed a greater abundance of illite and chlorite because the outcropped rocks were mainly composed of Tertiary sedimentary rocks, especially sandstone, shale and slate, and show strong physical weathering. The relatively high relief and more abundant rainfall also caused the clay minerals in the fluvial sediments to be transported to the estuaries down rivers from the mountains and then delivered to the adjacent seas by currents and waves over a shorter time scale.

Data construction method for the analysis of the spatial distribution of disastrous earthquakes in Taiwan

AbstractConsidering a disastrous earthquake as a rare event, the aim of this study is to apply the proposed data construction method (DCM) to determine the possible distribution pattern of disastrous earthquakes in Taiwan. Owing to the availability of only a limited amount of data and based on the multiset division of DCM, virtual samples have been generated. The procedure is illustrated by a numerical experiment that consists of data from 12 disastrous earthquakes in Taiwan from 1990 to 1999. The results show that the pattern constructed by DCM is geologically consistent with the actual phenomenon, which was caused by the collision of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Continental Plate. A case study of disastrous earthquakes in East Taiwan is then conducted by studying three near‐source regions. Based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, the constructed spatial distribution has shown its validity and capability in providing useful information for the risk assessment of disastrous earthquakes as rare events.