Morphostructure of the southeastern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula

Abstract

Introduction: the study area is located in the southern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula, southwest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The purpose of the article is to study the morphostructural features of the territory and assess their relationship with the prospects for discovering thermal waters within the study area.

The research methodology included: morphometric analysis of large-scale topographic maps, identification of linear elements of the morphostructure based on structural interpretation of space images, author's route observations with the study of the latest plicative elements and faults that can be reflected in the lineament field, establishing a connection between the interpretation results and geological survey data.

Results and discussion: the following have been compiled: a morphoisohypse map with division of morphostructural and morphosculptural relief and a relief energy map reflecting the distribution of active modern vertical tectonic movements. Based on the interpretation of space images, lineaments have been identified, among which local and regional forms have been isolated. A model of their formation has been proposed. Possible connections between thermal waters and morphostructure have been outlined.

Conclusion: from the position of morphostructural features of the territory, possible thermal water outlets can be associated with zones of increased rock permeability at the boundaries of positive and negative morphostructures, reflecting the relationship of neotectonic blocks. Regional lineaments of the disjunctive-plicative type with shear kinematics can be of particular importance. Within their limits, destructive fields with an increased degree of fracturing are of interest, in the contours of which concentration of fluid flows with elevated temperature can occur.