This year, geologists summarized the results of a five-year large-scale project, in which 700 specialists from different countries participated. The project by the UNESCO International Geological Program is dedicated to the formation of the continental crust in Central Asia. The project is headed by the Novosibirsk geologist Inna Safonova, Head of the Laboratory of the Evolution of Paleoceanography and Mantle Magmatism at the NSU Geology Geophysics Department and a senior research fellow at the Laboratory of Magmatism and Ore Formation of Institute of Geology and Mineralogy SB RAS. The co-leaders of the project are Raymar Zeltman (Great Britain), Min Soong (Hong Kong) and Wenjao Xiao (China).
Project No. 592 "Formation of the Central Asian continental crust" by the UNESCO International Geological Program is devoted to the study of the processes of formation and transformation of the continental crust at the Central Asian fold belt. Inna Safonova talked about the project, “We started in 2012. The Central Asian fold belt (CAFB) is a huge mountain system stretching from Kazakhstan to the Far East. From a fundamental point of view, the CAFB emerged during the evolution and closure of the Paleo-Asiatic Ocean, which existed 850-250 million years ago. Many researchers believe that the processes that took place in this ancient ocean and its active margins were very similar to those that are currently taking place in the Pacific Ocean. Part of the project’s objectives were to establish the reliability of these correlations and to clarify the role of continental blocks in the history of the formation of the CAFB crust."
During the 5 years of work on the project, the most important scientific results obtained showed that most of the crust of the Central Asian fold belt was "lost" in the process of evolution, i.e. was destroyed and immersed deep in the mantle of the Earth. As a result of these processes, the original proportions of the new (juvenile) and "old" (recycled) continental crust were disrupted. In addition, the material of the oceanic and continental crust that was submerged in the mantle, changed its physical and chemical state and was the trigger for intracontinental volcanism.
Another important result is the oceanic plate stratigraphic model and the concept of the formation of Pacific type mountain systems on the boundary between the continent and the ocean.
Over five years, more than 680 scientists from 60 countries around the world took part in the project, there were 28 scientific events, dozens of field expeditions, and more than 20 seminars and trainings for young scientists were conducted. In total, the project participants published 309 articles in peer-reviewed international journals.
The final project work was the recently published in a special issue of Gondwana Research magazine edited by Inna Safonova. This prestigious scientific journal (Impact Factor 7) ranks fourth in the "Earth Sciences" ranking of the Web of Science database. It was the first time in the history of Gondwana Research, that a special issue was prepared by a Russian scientist.
The special issue presents 19 articles by authors from Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Great Britain, Germany. France, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Taiwan, Ecuador, Australia and Poland. The authors include six employees of Novosibirsk State University and the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy (IGM) SB RAS.
“The geography of the special issue covers most of the Central Asian fold belt: the orogenic belts and microcontinents of Kazakhstan, Uzbek, Tajik and Chinese Tien Shan, Russian, Chinese and Mongolian Altai, southern Siberia and Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China) and the Far East (Russia, South Korea). And the article topics cover the entire history of the formation of the Central Asian fold belt,” said Inna Yuryevna.
The results of the five years of work formed the basis for a mega-grant by the government of the Russian Federation that was awarded in the autumn of 2016. The project "Multidisciplinary study of the Pacific type folded belts and the creation of an accepted model for the evolution of the oceans, their active margins and mantle magmatism" is led by Professor Shigenori Maruyama (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) and Inna Safonova (NSU, Russia). All Russian participants in the project are employees of Novosibirsk State University and IGM SB RAS.
