Pliocene to Quaternary deformation in South East Sayan (Siberia): Initiation of the Tertiary compressive phase in the southern termination of the Baikal Rift System

The South East Sayan area, W of the Lake Baikal is subjected to a very complex tectonic setting where the extensional stress field of the Baikal Rift System meets the compressional stress field generated by the India–Asia collision further south. Using satellite images, aerial photographs, SRTM DEM, field mapping of geomorphological structures, and published neotectonics and geological data we show that most of the relief in the SE Sayan initiated during Late Pliocene–Pleistocene through compressive reactivation of inherited structures. By Late Quaternary, clockwise rotation of the compressive field generated strike–slip faulting and local, secondary extension still within a general compressional stress field. We demonstrate that the formation of the small-scale extensional basins within the East Sayan range is not linked to general the extension in the Baikal Rift System nor to a possible asthenospheric plume acting at the base of the crust but rather to the rotation of small rigid tectonic blocks driven by the compression.

Research highlights► The basins of the East Sayan ranges develop in a compressional stress field. ► Extension in the East Sayan ranges is not correlated to the Baikal Rift System. ► The main relief developed in Late Pliocene–Pleistocene through fault reactivation. ► Since Late Quaternary horizontal deformation on major strike–slip faults predominates.