Abstract
The Kuril backarc basin is a 3300-m-deep basin located behind the Kuril island arc and subduction zone. It is underlain by oceanic crust, the top of which is 7–8 km deep, and it contains 4 to 5+ km of technically undisturbed sedimentary fill. The oldest sedimentary rocks sampled from the basin margin are Miocene/Oligocene. Although no seafloor spreading magnetic lineations exist, we conclude that the basin has formed by backarc extension and spreading. Elongated in the NE-SW direction, parallel to the Kuril arc, the basin is ~250 km wide at its SW end, narrowing to closure at its NE termination at the southern tip of Kamchatka. Opening of the basin was apparently related to a relative motion pole at or near the south end of Kamchatka, consistent with Miocene/Oligocene lateral fault trends between Sakhalin and Hokkaido and the strike of transverse basement ridges extending across the basin. The age of the basin may be as young as Miocene or as old as late Cretaceous. Ocean drilling is needed to establish its precise age.
The researches of many commentators have already thrown much darkness on this subject and it is possible that, if they continue, we shall soon know nothing at all about it.
Mark Twain
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Gnibidenko, H.S., Hilde, T.W.C., Gretskaya, E.V., Andreyev, A.A. (1995). Kuril (South Okhotsk) Backarc Basin. In: Taylor, B. (eds) Backarc Basins. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1843-3_12
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