Research subject. Main problems of the General Stratigraphic Scale (GSS) of the Upper Precambrian including uncertainties in the hierarchy of subdivisions are analyzed.

Results. Prospects for detailing the Upper Precambrian GSS are discussed, along with questions of its correlation with International Chronostratigraphic Chart (ICSC) and establishing the lower boundaries of chronostratigraphic subdivisions. The importance of unifying the existing views is emphasized.

Conclusions. It is proposed to carry out the following reforms of GSS: to abolish Acrothemes / Acrons; to approve the Proterozoic (as well as the Archean) as an Eonotheme / Eon; to minimize the use of terms “Upper Proterozoic” and “Lower Proterozoic”; to assign the Riphean and Vendian to the rank of Erathem / Era (while preserving the status of the Vendian as a System / Period); to consider Burzyanian, Yurmatinian, Karatavian and Arshinian as Systems / Periods of the Riphean. Attention is focused on the Upper Riphean-Vendian interval. The lower boundary of the Upper Riphean (Karatavian) was proposed to establish according to the first appearance of the Trachyhystrichosphaera sp. microfossils. Then, the Terminal Riphean (Arshinian) lower boundary should be traced to the base of the tillites formed during the global Sturtian glaciation (which approximately corresponds to the base of the Cryogenian in ICSC). Apparently, the Vendian lower boundary may be raised to the level of the top of the Gaskiers tillites, as the deposits of the last major glaciation in the Precambrian. The indicated proposals are substantiated. It is necessary to form work groups to develop solutions.

Research subject. The Riphean paleorift system of the White Sea, most of which is overlain by the waters of the White and Barents Seas and the platform cover of the East European Platform. This allowed numerous researchers to classify it as an aulacogen. The system was revealed by geophysical methods in the relief of the crystalline basement of the platform in the form of a frame of deep extended trenches of northwestern strike, subparallel to the edge of the East European platform.

Materials and methods. Personal observations of the authors within the Onega-Kandalakcha paleorift, Baikal rift zone; a detailed study of seismostratigraphic sections of these zones; extensive literature data on the structure of modern rift zones. A comparative analysis of the structure of the most studied and currently active Baikal and East African rift systems, as well as the Karoo rift system of the Late Paleozoic origin with the paleorift system of the White Sea.

Results. The following types of structural parageneses, which are characteristic of both modern rift systems and ancient paleorift systems, were identified. 1. Genetic relationship (inheritance?) of riftogenic structures with more ancient basement structures. 2. Structural paragenesis of concentric complexes in rift propagation zones. 3. Comparability of the area of horizontal extension of the lithosphere of the White Sea paleorift system with extension zones of modern continental rifts. 4. The fundamental similarity of the structure: the complex of paleorifts of the White Sea with modern continental rift systems: the presence of long deep trough segmentation of grabens and semi-grabens separated by bridges, which were accommodation zones with polarity reversal along the strike of the rift zone, displacement of the rift relative to the mantle ledge, the existence of a gently dipping normal fault (detachment), etc.

Conclusion. The riftogenic nature of the aulacogens in the northeastern segment of the East European Platform has been confirmed.

Research subject. The Verkhoyano-Kolymsky areal of ore mineralization in the Far East of Russia.

Data and methods. We used the state metallogenic map of Russia, Sc. 1: 2 500 000 (2000) and the gravity map of Russia Sc. 1: 2 500 000 (2001). Modeling was conducted by studying the deep structure of the earth’s crust and upper mantle from the anomalies of the density contrast of geological media in the intervals between the centers of density inhomogeneities and the surfaces of equivalent spheres.

Results. 3D-distributions of density contrast (µz-parameter) in the crust and upper mantle of the Verkhoyano-Kolymsky region related to the rheological properties of geological media were analyzed. In the gravity models designed without attraction of external information, the structures of thrust, splitting, stretching, as well as the structures of central type (CTS) of the plume nature, were identified. In the regional stretching zone, at the border of lithospheric segments, the revealed Indigiro-Kolymsky and Verkhoyansk CTSs were described in 3D space. These structures are characterized by a mushroom-like upwelling of the asthenosphere, associated with heat flow anomalies. The identified structures differ in terms of asthenosphere depth, age and ore mineralization. The location of ore clusters and regions in the zones of CTS obeys concentric ore-magmatic zoning, typical for this type of structures. The central (trunk-like) zone of Indigiro-Kolymsky CTS features mainly high-temperature gold-quarts mineralization. On the periphery, along with gold areas, there are tin-tungsten, tin and complex ore mineralization areas. The majority of gold fields with low-temperature gold-sulfide, tin and polymetallic mineralization are attributed to the flanks of Indigiro-Kolymsky CTS. In the Verkhoyanska CTS, the majority of ore regions are characterized by multi-formation ore mineralization. In the central part of this structure, areas with mainly low-temperature tin, mercury-antimony and gold-silver ore mineralization are located. On the flanks, gold mineralization is either absent or subsidiary.

Conclusions. As a result of a simple procedure, implying generalization of multiple decisions of the elementary inverse problem of gravity potential, main features of the deep structure of the Verkhyano-Kolima region were defined. In the regional stretch zone, at the boundary of lithospheric segments, the Indigiro-Kolimskaya and Verkhoyanskaya CTSs of the plume nature that control the location of ore deposits were identified and described in 3D space.

Research subject. Olivine of deep-seated inclusions from Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks of the Tunka valley.

Materials and methods. Electron probe microanalysis of minerals with determination of calcium in olivine by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). A complex of methods of quantitative chemical analysis for determination of major oxides in rocks.

Results. Deep-seated nodules from Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks in the Tunka Valley characterize the root part of the Slyudyanka metamorphic subterrane, formed during collisional accretion of the Khamar-Daban terrane to the Siberian paleocontinent in the Early Paleozoic and reactivated in the Late Cenozoic. From bulk compositions of deep-seated nodules, groups of xenoliths (restites, rocks closed to the primitive mantle composition, and metasomatites) and cognate rocks (magmatic and magmatic-metasomatic genesis) were distinguished. The polygenetic character of this assemblage is designated by variations of major and trace-element abundances in olivine. In olivine of xenoliths, forsterite (Fo) ranges from 86 to 91% under abundances of NiO – 0.2–0.5, MnO – 0.1–0.2, and CaO < 0.16 wt %. In olivine of magmatic rocks and those of mixed (magmatic-metasomatic) genesis, Fo decreases to 64% with a decrease in NiO (Ni/Mg ratio) and an increase in MnO and CaO. Magmatic olivine shows 0.16–0.21 wt % MnO and about 0.1 wt % CaO, in contrast to olivine of magmatic-metasomatic genesis, enriched in these oxides to 0.5 wt % and 0.45 wt %, respectively, with an increase in the Mn/Fe and Ca/Fe ratios. Olivine trends of the shallow polygenetic assemblage of inclusions are emphasized when compared with those of the deeper ones from volcanic rocks of the Vitim and Oka plateaus that represent a transition from the garnet to the spinel-pyroxene facies in mantle peridotites.

Conclusion. Olivine compositions are indicative of the shallow origin of peridotite and pyroxenite nodules from the crust and crust–mantle transition in the root part of the Slyudyanka collision zone reactivated in the Late Cenozoic.

Research subject. The article considers the Famennian‑Tournaisian sequence of the South-Eastern part of the Tchernyshev Uplift (North Cis-Uralian). The sequence corresponds to the Izyayu Formation.

Materials and methods. The article is focused on the clarification of the stratigraphy, composition and depositional environment of this formation. Research data about the Izyayu Formation in the type area (Izyayu River) were used. The stratigraphic framework of this study included data on conodonts, foraminifers and carbonate carbon isotopic shifts.

Results. In the type area under study, the Izyayu Formation corresponds to the interval from the upper part of the Famennian (upper part of the Palmatolepis marginifera utahensis conodont Zone) up to the middle part of the Tournaisian (Lower crenulata conodont Zone). The formation is 100– 120 m thick. The Izyayu Formation grades to the upper part of the deep-water Syvyu Formation in the east, and to the shallow-water Kamenka Formation and the lower part of the Ydzhid Formation. The areal of the Izyayu Formation comprises the South-Eastern part of the Tchernyshev Uplift. The Formation was deposited in the environment of a gentle prograding slope of a carbonate platform.

Conclusions. The Izyayu Formation in the type area is composed of thin clayey-carbonate graded cycles. It covers the stratigraphic interval from the Zelenets Regional Stage through the Tcherepet Regional Stage. This formation is easily distinguishable by lithological features in outcrops and borehole cores.

Research subject. Brachiopods from the core of the Kurgan-Uspenskaya-1 parametric borehole. The borehole was drilled in the south of Western Siberia 80 km southeast of the Kurgan town. Brachiopods were collected at a depth of 1,525.4 m in the IV tectonic block (core interval 1,450–1,794 m) in the greenish-gray marls of the Famennian stage of the Upper Devonian.

Materials and methods. The paleontological material is presented in the form of complete undamaged shells and individual valves of small- and medium-sized brachiopods. The safety of brachiopods makes it possible to determine their species and genera, sometimes in open nomenclature. The article provides a brief description of the available material.

Results. 11 species of brachiopods of the subtype Rhynchonelliformea belonging to six orders and nine genera were identified. The following ten species were described: Orbinaria fallax (Pand.), Semiproductus amplus Bubl., Schuchertella sp., Dalejina? sp., Camarotoechia panderi (Sem.et Moell.), C. volucera Nal., Athyris tobolica Nal., Cleiothyridina tenuilineata (Row.), Cl. ex gr. pectinata (Sem. et Moell.), Retzia? sp. The presented information allows conclusions about the age of the sediments enclosing the brachiopods under study and expands the existing knowledge of both the composition of the Upper Famennian brachiopods of the basement of the south of Western Siberia and their geographical and stratigraphic distribution.

Conclusion. An analysis of the stratigraphic distribution of the described brachiopods taking into account data on foraminifera allowed us to determine the age of the host rocks as the very top of the Famennian stage. The composition of the brachiopods allows these rocks to be correlated with coeval deposits of the East European Platform, Timan, the Urals, Kuzbass, the Gorny Altai, Kazakhstan and North America.

Research subject. The Savabeisky sulfide copper-nickel ore occurrence, located in the central part of the Khengur (Central Pay-Khoy) gabbro-dolerite complex of the Pay-Khoy, within the Yugorsky Peninsula, located in the Far North-East of the European part of Russia, in the Arkhangelsk region, between the Barents and Kara Seas.

Materials and methods. Samples of copper-nickel ores with noble metal mineralization were studied. Palladium tellurides and bismuthtellurides were characterized using optical and scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), X-ray structural analysis and Raman spectroscopy.

Results. Bismuthtellurides in the Paykhoysko-Vaigach-Yuzhnonovozemelskiy region – michenerite, merenskyite and unidentified palladium telluride of the kotulskite–merenskyite series with crystal formula Pd2(TeSbBi)3 – were found for the first time. The unit cell parameter of Pay-Khoy michenerite was calculated using X-ray diffraction analysis data: a = 6.638(2) Å. According to Raman spectroscopy, the palladium tellurides and bismuthtellurides of the Savabeisky ore occurrence were distinguished into 4 groups: Sb-kotulskite (does not contain Raman-active modes), unnamed PGM Pd2(TeSbBi)3 (bands in the range 95–103, 121–126 cm–1, obtained for the first time), Sb-merenskyite (band 126–135 cm–1), michenerite (bands with maxima 100 and 116 cm–1, obtained for the first time). The Kikuchi lines for michenerite and the mineral of the kotulskite–merenskyite series were obtained by the EBSD method.

Conclusions. The diagnosis of palladium tellurides and bismuthtellurides is a rather complicated problem (wide variations in compositions, low hardness, small size, thin intergrowths of several individuals, the presence of impurities, etc.) affecting the determination of their mineral form and requiring an integrated approach. The Raman spectra of michenerite and unnamed PGM can be used as standards for the rapid identification of their natural forms, in contrast to EBSD, which requires improved sample preparation. The relatively high content of antimony in the ore minerals and noble metals minerals at the Savabeisky ore occurrence is the antimony metallogenic specificity characteristic of the entire Uralsko-Novozemelskiy province.