Geophysical processes and biosphere: article

Аnnotation: A comprehensive analysis of an extensive base of primary data made it possible to obtain the most complete picture of the morphostructure of the West Australian Ridge, its geological structure and development, which unambiguously testify to its continental origin. For the first time, in addition to the two main morphostructural elements of the ridge, which are the northern and southern slopes, the third one is distinguished as the northeastern slope. It has a general slope towards the Naturalist Abyssal Plain and structurally forms its northwestern framing. It has been established that the morphology of the slopes is due to the peculiarities of the tectonic development of the adjacent basins with them. In the structure of the sedimentary cover of the central part of the northern slope, a lower (basal) seismoacoustic complex was identified, which was not exposed by deep-sea drilling, the formation of which occurred no later than the Early Cretaceous. The final immersion of individual fragments of the ridge and the formation of its modern morphostructural appearance, as well as the structural-tectonic restructuring of the adjacent areas, occurred in the newest phase of tectonic activation in the Late Miocene-Pliocene time. To write the article, morphological, geological, geophysical and geochemical data were used, including the materials of deep-water drilling obtained in the study of the West-Australian Ridge and adjacent basins.