Morphostructural analysis in solving geological problems of Eastern part of Asia
Central-type morphostructures with continental, intermediate and oceanic types of Earth crust were designated in the continental margin in the East Asia in the last decades. In the initial stages of the study of the Japan Sea region (JR) structural interpretation of topographic and satellite imagery was carried out to identify ore control (endogenous mineralization, diamonds, etc.) zones hidden basement faults and magmatic focal structures and fault systems on the continent and on the bottom of the Sea of Japan. In these studies, lineament analysis was performed based on the complex of geomorphological, geological and geophysical methods and geological mapping. Later it was successfully used in the development of models for the formation of marginal seas of the Western-Pacific continent - ocean transition zone, which are regarded as lithospheric vortex structures. In the JR: 1) three vortex morphostructures were recognized - the Japan Sea (JS), Nizh-neamur (NA) and Sunlyao (SL), 2) two structural units were found: the lithospheric and mantle ones, comprising, respectively, the tectonic frame and vortex structures, closely related to the underlying asthenosphere. The JS morphostructure reflects the process of opening of the Sea of Japan as a result of the interaction of the Eurasian and Pacific plates. NA was interpreted as an intermountain basin, bordered upon the Sunlyao vortex type oil and gas basin in the West. Oil and gas Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentary basins are developed in the JR, representing lithospheric vortexes. Lineament analysis offers new ways to predict the migration of carbohydrates in the Earth's crust and reveals the places of their accumulation. This method can be used in the process of the preparatory phase in the study of petroleum potential of the Western Pacific marginal seas and the Arctic basins.