COMPOSITIONAL CHANGES IN BOTTOM SEDIMENTS OF LAKE KHUBSUGUL AS AN INDICATOR OF CLIMATIC CHANGES IN THE BAIKAL REGION 15-14 KA AGO

Abstract

Lake Khubsugul is a Cenozoic rift representing a structural element of the Baikal rift zone (BRZ), which extends some 1500 km from the Eastern Sayan in the southwest to the Kodar Ridge in the northwest. It consists of several Cenozoic rift basins (Darkhad, Khubsugul, Tunka, Baikal, Upper Angara, Muya, and others) located between young mountainous chains (East Sayan, Khamar-Daban, Barguzin, Kodar, and others). The BRZ is confined to the Siberian Craton (Platform) boundary with the Eastern Sayan and Baikal fold belts. The fold belts are composed of several terranes amalgamated by the Siberian continent in the Paleozoic-Mesozoic during the closure of the Paleozoic ocean, which included the Mongol-Okhotsk oceanic basin [1].