GEOLOGY OF THE EMPEROR MOUNTAINS AND SOME QUESTIONS OF TECTONICS OF THE NORTH WEST PACIFIC

Abstract

The appearance in the scientific press of new data on the stages of development of the north-western part of the Pacific Ocean makes relevant the results of a comprehensive study of the Imperial Mountains, or the North Western Ridge (NWR) — the eastern border of this region. The results of deep sea drilling (DSDP), original bathymetric surveys, sampling, and direct observations from an inhabited underwater vehicle are analyzed. It is concluded that the NWR is a linear key block mountain structure developed along the transoceanic tectonolineament zone, an integral part of the planet’s regmatogenic framework. The mountains of the ridge are guyots located, as a rule, on a common gulf shaped base, contoured from west and east by extended gently sloping valleys with a relative depth of up to 1 km. Separate morphostructure blocks have both individual and general modes of raising and lowering for the entire mountain structure. The data presented in the article, which were previously poorly covered in the press, make it possible to take a fresh approach to assessing the role of vertical tectonic movements in the formation of the NWR chain and the Earth’s crust in the Pacific as a whole and make it difficult to use orthodox plate tectonic concepts to solve problems of both regional and planetary tectogenesis.

Keywords

• north western ridge of the pacific ocean
• emperor mountains
• vertical tectonic movements