MARINE PALEOGENE SEDIMENTS FROM THE NORTHERN SLOPE OF THE KURIL DEEP-SEA BASIN, SEA OF OKHOTSK

Abstract

Micropaleontology and lithology of rocks dredged near the Terpeniya Rise of the Kuril Basin slope are studied. Bio-, litho-, and seismostratigraphic records are used to distinguish the Paleocene-Lower Oligocene (Seismocomplex E), Upper Oligocene (Seismocomplex D), and Upper Oligocene-Middle Miocene (Seismocomplex C) sequences of the Lower Cenozoic sedimentary cover. The sequences are correlated with concurrent deposits of the region, and their paleotectonic settings are reconstructed. It is concluded that in the southern transitional zone of the Sea of Okhotsk there was a full succession of the Paleocene morphological structures, i.e., the shelf, slope, and deep-sea basin, which were separated from the ocean by the paleo-Kuril system of islands or submarine rises.