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The structure and petrologic composition of new gold-ore provinces in southeastern East Sayan (Tissa-Sarkhoi cluster) are considered. Several morphogenetic types of gold mineralization have been established: quartz veins with beresitization zones, veinlet-disseminated ores in granitoids, and listwaenitization and sulfidation zones in effusions of the Sarkhoi Group and intrusive rocks of the Late Riphean Khorin-Gol complex. According to geochronological dates and some mineralogical and geochemical features, the gold mineralization is close in age to these Precambrian island-arc complexes. Parageneses of two stages of ore formation have been recognized: early high-temperature (250-460

Contents of Pt and Pd were determined in weakly mineralized rocks, ores, and flotation concentrates of the Aksug porphyry Cu-Mo deposit, northeastern Tuva. In all studied samples they are above the detection limits: Pt = 17-96 ppb and Pd = 9-924 ppb. These elements are unevenly distributed throughout the rocks and ores, with Pd/Pt varying from 0.5 to 37. Study of Pd-rich ores (up to 924 ppb, Pd/Pt = 37) on a JEOL JSM 5600 scanning electron microscope revealed finest (2-5 μm) merenskyite inclusions (25.20% Pd, 1.21% Pt, 72.31% Te) in chalcopyrite. The calculated crystallochemical formula of merenskyite from ores of the Aksug deposit is (Pd_0.862 Pt_0.023 Cu_0.026 Fe_0.025)Te_2.064. The merenskyite is associated with electrum (79.92% Au, 18.96% Ag), monazite, cobaltite, tennantite, and Sr-containing barite (4.6-18.0% Sr). Palladium mineralization occurs in massive chalcopyrite veinlets in zones of intensely propylitized rocks. The Devonian Aksug ore-bearing porphyry complex developed in the field of Early-Middle Cambrian intrusions of gabbro-diorite-plagiogranites associated with basalt-andesite effusions of island-arc complex. This might have led to high PGE contents in the Aksug rocks. The deposit formation proceeded with the participation of ore-bearing Cl-enriched fluids favoring the concentration and transport of PGE in porphyry copper systems.

The subject of study was the chemical composition of common fresh-water springs precipitating travertines in tectonically passive regions of the Kolyvan'-Tomsk folded area and northwestern Salair. Attention was paid to the specific character of manifestation, mineralogy, and petrography of the produced travertines. Results of the study of isotopic composition of carbon in hydrocarbonate ion of waters and carbonate travertines are reported. It is shown that the genetic type of CO₂ accompanying the formation of travertines is biogenic. Study of the equilibrium of the underground waters with aluminosilicate and carbonate minerals has shown that the travertines are the product of evolution of an equilibrium-nonequilibrium water-rock system. New mechanisms of travertine formation from cool fresh waters are proposed.

In dividing supracrustal strata, formation and horizon have been and are basic stratigraphic units. Stratigraphic boundaries of a formation, a natural geologic body, are drawn mostly on the basis of its composition. Paleontological remains constrain the formation in time and spatially locate it in the Earth's crust. Boundaries between formations can be of three types: strictly stratigraphic, parastratigraphic, and allostratographic. The stratigraphic interval can range from a fraction of a horizon or chronozone to several stages. At the boundary between two systems the adjacent parts of the formation can relate to both systems. The main stratigraphic characteristics for recognizing horizons are paleontologic (biostratigraphic) features, revealed by zonal, paleoecosystemic (ecostratigraphic), bioeventual, and other methods to make a basis for their immanent signature. Horizon can be characterized by boundaries of only two types: strictly stratigraphic and allostratigraphic. The stratigraphic interval of a horizon can vary from a single chronozone to a stage. Boundaries of neighboring horizons at the contact between two stages or systems should coincide with the latter. The stratigraphic units of the International Stratigraphic Chart, in contrary to formation and horizon, are characterized by borders of only one type - strictly stratigraphic.

Fossil seed assemblages of Paleogene and Neogene strata in northeastern Asia are reviewed based on data of Novosibirsk paleocarpologists and literature data. The composition and age of flora are refined, and recommendations on improving stratigraphic charts of deposits in northeastern Russia are given.

We obtained a macroseismic equation with a convergent solution at a hypocentral distance D ~ 0 (independent of magnitude) for relative shaking intensity. The logarithmic distance dependence of intensity turned out to be piecewise linear no matter whether it is expressed in relative units of intensity degree or in logarithmic ground motion velocity. The macroseismic intensity shows high correlation with motion velocity. Another result is the magnitude dependence of dominant periods of ground motion velocity for large earthquakes.

An analytical solution of Maxwell's equations for layered anisotropic media is presented in a form which allows estimating the sought parameters by layer stripping without round-off accumulation. The solution in each layer is reduced to the standard procedures of solving a fourth-order algebraic equation, multiplication, addition, and inversion of second-order non-singular matrices. The algorithm has no limitations on layer thickness and is applicable to both very thick and very thin layers. The new numerical code is straightforward and can be easily parallelized.

The Olkhon area in the western Baikal region belongs to the Baikal rift system. The terrain bears strong imprint of the Early Paleozoic structural framework produced by a multistage collision. The today's elevation pattern records the main features of inhomogeneous basement lithology. The topography of the area is generally governed by the tectonic style, and tectonic landforms remain weakly denuded and almost uneroded. Thus the Cenozoic geomorphic framework can be correlated to the Early Paleozoic basement structure.

With U-Pb zircon dating, we determined the age of rhyodacites composing sedimentary covers among coarse-terrigenous rocks of the lowermost Chaya Formation of the Akitkan Group (North Baikal volcanoplutonic belt). These rocks are considered to have formed during the sedimentation. The dates (1863 ± 9 Ma) permitted estimation of the age of basal beds of the Chaya Formation and substantiate the age boundary between the Khibelen and Chaya Formations of the Akitkan Group. The determined age and earlier dates of igneous rocks intruding the Chaya Formation deposits suggest that the latter accumulated for ~10 Myr.

The Yenisei Range and the adjacent territories in the east are subdivided into (1) the Mid-Angara intracratonic depression; (2) the Yenisei pericratonic trough; and 3) a marginal oceanic block, the Isakovka-Predivinsk area. The lower part of the Riphean succession is subdivided into two principally different sedimentary complexes - the Lower Sukhoi Pit Subgroup and the Upper Sukhoi Pit Subgroup (the Pogoryui-Alad'in interval of the succession). The fundamental nature of the events that separate these two complexes and the characteristic, rhythmically bedded structure of the Upper Sukhoi Pit Subgroup allow the latter to be ranked a separate straton, the Bol'shoi Pit Group. Its lower boundary is associated with the Grenvillian events commencing with the emplacement of the Teya granite-gneiss domes and other intrusive complexes dated at 1100-1000 Ma. In the sedimentation record these events are manifested as a sudden change from the slate complex, for which we keep the name Sukhoi Pit Group, to the rhythmically bedded succession of the Bol'shoi Pit Group. The latter is interpreted as a product of uproofing of an elevated hinterland to the west. Insofar as the amplitude of this elevated area decreases progressively toward the Mid-Angara trough, the Bol'shoi Pit erosional unconformity and the associated interval of nondeposition are absent from the area. In the west of the Yenisei Range, in contrast, there is a major stratigraphic gap in the sequence, which is associated with the aforementioned events. The hypothesis on intensive events separating the deposition of the Bol'shoi Pit Group of the Kerpylian Horizon and the Tungusik Group of the Lakhandinian Horizon is not supported by the new data. The change from carbonate facies into siliciclastics in the west was misinterpreted as an erosional unconformity, with basal deposits corresponding to the lower boundary of the Tungusik Group. The occurrence of the Upper Tungusik deposits overlying much older rocks is a result of the pre-Bol'shoi Pit erosion and the gradual expansion of the Tungusik transgression. Thus, there are no grounds to argue for significant pre-Lakhandinian events in the region. Hence, the Kerpylian and Lakhandinian in the Yenisei Range, as well as in other parts of the Siberian Craton, constitute two parts of a larger supraregional straton, which corresponds to the lower half of the Upper Riphean and is designated here the Mayanian. The fundamentally different nature of the events associated with the next, Baikalian stage of the development allows its tripartite subdivision in the region. Deposition of the Lower Baikalian (the Oslyanka Group) was preceded by the crustal extension at the junction between the continental and oceanic blocks and, possibly, the formation of one of the Yenisei Range ophiolite complexes, followed by the emplacement of the Tatarka-Ayakhta batholiths at around 850 Ma. Fragments of both complexes are found as clasts in the basal conglomerates of the Middle Baikalian Chingasan Horizon. The specific character of the pre-Baikalian events determines their apparently poor expression in the sedimentation (weaker metamorphism of the Oslyanka deposits compared with the Tungusik Group). Even the activity leading to the formation of the Tatarka-Ayakhta granites cannot be regarded as a full-scale orogenic process. Collisional events separating the Lower and Middle Baikalian are manifested as the erosional unconformity at the base of the Chingasan Group and the emplacement of the Glushikha granites (760-730 Ma). The Middle Baikalian age of the Chingasan deposits is constrained by the data from paleontology, historical geology, and geochronology. Furthermore, the presence of glacial deposits renders this straton as a global stratigraphic marker. Further expansion of transgression in the Upper Baikalian is linked to another important event, but additional paleontological and geochronological information is needed to date the Upper Baikalian (Chapa Group) more accurately. The Baikalian events synchronously manifested themselves in all structural-facies zones of the Yenisei Range and are coeval to structural complexes from adjacent areas of the Siberian Craton. The tripartite Baikalian, therefore, has a potential for being included into the General Scale of the upper Upper Riphean.