Tectonics of the Central Part of the Adycha-Taryn Fault Zone (Verkhoyansk-Kolyma Orogenic Belt, NE Asia)

Abstract The study area is located in the central part of the regional-scale Adycha-Taryn fault zone separating the Adycha-El’gi and Nera anticlinoria in the hinterland of the Verkhoyansk fold-and-thrust belt (central part of the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma orogenic belt). Detailed structural studies were conducted in large quarries in the lower reaches of the El’gi River (Indigirka R. basin). In the Adycha-El’gi anticlinorium, several generations of folds, faults, and cleavage are recorded. The intensity of deformation here is found to gradually increase in NE direction. The NE wall of the Adycha-Taryn fault is thought to be more strongly deformed. The results of our investigations revealed three structural parageneses. The first paragenesis includes thrusts, reverse faults, and intense NW-striking folds of the first generation. The second paragenesis consists of less intense superposed folds of the second generation, with subvertical axes, as well as sinistral strike-slip faults. The previously made assumption is confirmed about manifestation in the study area of at least two deformation stages. We also presuppose the existence of the third deformation stage in which dextral strike-slip faults were formed. A change in the intensity of tectonic deformations both along and across the Adycha-Taryn fault zone is first established. On the southwestern side of the fault zone, the intensity of deformation structures decreases from NW to SE. On the northeastern side, the deformation intensity first increases in that same direction but then tends to diminish. An assumption is made about a growing importance of reverse faults in NW direction, along the Adycha-Taryn fault zone. Orientation of paleostress axes responsible for the formation of tectonic structures in the study area is first determined. Folds and thrusts of the first deformation stage were formed under subhorizontal compression in NE direction. Sinistral strike slips and associated folds of the second deformation stage resulted from WE-oriented subhorizontal compression. The following dextral strike-slip motions occurred in the conditions of NW-directed subhorizontal compression and NE-oriented subhorizontal extension. The studied tectonic deformations were formed in Late Mesozoic time as a result of collision-accretion events in the central part of the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma orogenic belt.