The tectonics and stages of the geological history of the Yenisei–Khatanga Basin and the conjugate Taimyr Orogen

Abstract

A new interpretation of the seismic profile series for the Taimyr Orogen and the Yenisei–Khatanga Basin is given in terms of their tectonics and geological history. The tectonics and tectonostratigraphy of the Yenisei–Khatanga and the Khatanga–Lena basins are considered. In the Late Vendian and Early Paleozoic, a passive continental margin and postrift shelf basin existed in Taimyr and the Yenisei–Khatanga Basin. From the Early Carboniferous to the Mid-Permian, the North and Central Taimyr zones were involved in orogeny. The Late Paleozoic foredeep was formed in the contemporary South Taimyr Zone. In the Middle to Late Triassic, a new orogeny took place in the large territory of Taimyr and the Noril’sk district of the Siberian Platform. A synorogenic foredeep has been recognized for the first time close to the Yenisei–Khatanga Basin. In the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, this basin was subsided under transpressional conditions. Thereby, anticlinal swells were formed from the Callovian to the Aptian. Their growth continued in the Cenozoic. The Taimyr Orogen underwent tectonic reactivation and apparently right-lateral transpression from Carboniferous to Cenozoic.