NEW FINDINGS OF MUD VOLCANISM IN NORTHWEST COAST OF LAKE BAIKAL BASED ON UNDERWATER VIDEO RECORDING

We present new data on manifestations of mud volcanism accompanied by gas emissions in Lake Baikal. Brittle deformations of the bottom with traces of erupted liquefied sediments were found in the Malaya Kosa Bay and the Goryachinskaya Bay in the North Baikal depression at depths of 105–163.6 m. The deposits outcropping in the extended scarps and mud craters are mainly represented by highly-porous clays. In places there are ledges of boulder-pebble sediments. The areas of the mud volcanism distribution are confined to the damage North Baikal fault zone, indicating its current activity. Disturbance of the clays and soft sediments covering them indicates the recent eruption of gas-saturated fluid and mud. At depths of 157–162 m in the Goryachinskaya Bay, cone-shaped structures ∼5 × 5 cm in size with a crater in the top part were found in them. Similar griffons were revealed in the Solontsovaya Bay along rectilinear faults opposite the paleoseismic rupture of the same name. It is necessary to continue studying the revealed shallow-water manifestations of mud volcanism and rupture deformations of the bottom by staging complex geological and geophysical studies.