History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back PALEOMAGNETIC STUDIES OF THE SIKHOTE-ALIN OROGEN A.N. Didenko, A.Yu. Peskov, M.V. Arkhipov, A.I. Tikhomirova The researchers from the Laboratory of Tectonics of the Institute of Tectonics and Geophysics have obtained new reliable paleomagnetic data in recent years on a number of Cretaceous complexes of the Sikhote-Alin with some of these data of fundamental significance for the reconstruction of geologic history of the Sikhote-Alin orogenic belt. The new data, primarily paleomagnetic, on the Cretaceous sedimentary and volcanogenic rocks of the Kiselevka-Manoma, Zhuravlevka-Amur, and Kema terranes allow the following conclusions to be made: 1) Valanginian rocks of the Pionerskaya Formation of the Zhuravlevka-Amur terrane emplaced at the latitude of 14°N in a pull-apart basin setting; 2) rocks of the Kiselevskaya Formation of the Kiselevka-Manoma terrane formed in the Valanginian-Hauterivian at about 19°N latitude in an intraplate setting; 3) rocks of the Kemskaya Formation of the Kema terrane formed no earlier than in the Albian at the latitude of 36°N in a mature island-arc setting along the Eurasian paleocontinent margin receiving sedimentary infl uence from the continent; 4) the graywacke complex of the Silasinskaya Formation from the Kiselevka-Manoma terrane emplaced either in the Albian or perhaps early in the Cenomanian at about 33°N latitude in an intraoceanic island-arc setting in the roots of the intraoceanic island arc and in the axial part of the deep-sea trench, where terrigenous material was supplied; and 5) rocks of the Utitskaya Formation of the Zhuravlevka-Amur terrane emplaced at about 54°N latitude in the late Cenomanian-Turonian in an active continental margin setting. These paleomagnetic data are in good agreement with the terrane concept for the formation of the Sikhote-Alian-North-Sakhalin orogenic belt, according to which, beginning in the late Cretaceous, a number of geological complexes of different paleolatitude positions moved from hundreds to the first thousands kilometers northward along the transform continental margin. Keywords: paleomagnetism, geochronology, Sikhote-Alin, Kema terrane, Kiselevka-Manoma terrane, Zhuravlevka-Amur terrane. DOI: 10.25791/intstg.9.2021.1313 Pp. 131-150.