The landscape and biological diversity of salt-dome landscapes: specific features (Western Kazakhstan case study)
- PDF / 3,506,077 Bytes
- 19 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 95 Downloads / 279 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
The landscape and biological diversity of salt-dome landscapes: specific features (Western Kazakhstan case study) Kazhmurat Akhmedenov 1 Received: 28 December 2017 / Accepted: 3 July 2018 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2018
Abstract Salt tectonics as a type of tectonic genesis has an important feature—while breaching the suprasalt rocks, salt diapirs transform the terrain structure by activating interaction between the components through the involvement in the terrain genesis of both the salt and the whole complex of deep geologic rocks that ended up on the surface. Geological anomalies, which salt-dome elevations essentially are, initiate an entire complex of other anomalies that interact and reciprocate. We have summarized the results of the field (2012–2017) and desktop studies on the natural resource potential of salt-dome landscapes. This paper presents the results of hydrochemical studies of the water of lakes Inder, Aralsor, and Shalkar, which are characterized by high mineralization and a slightly alkaline environment. Recommendations are made in regard to the creation of special conservation territories in the salt-dome landscapes of Western Kazakhstan. Keywords Salt-dome tectonics . Brine lakes . Terrain . Biological diversity . Mineral sources . Therapeutic mud . Inder karst field . Western Kazakhstan
Introduction Salt-dome geosystems cover almost 5% of land surface, including about 90 salt-dome regions that host about 5000 salt structures (Zhu 2013). The biggest landscape areas with saltdome terrain are as follows: Caspian, Gulf Coastal Plain, Iranian, Uralian, North-German, Romania (Transylvanian), Donetsk-Dnepr, and Tajikistan (Petrishchev 2011a; Autin 2002; Warren 2006). The impact of salt-dome tectonics on the landscape is determined by the salt-dome terrain genesis, which has an ascending, culminating, and descending stage (McDonald et al. 2016). The culminating stage is associated with the formation and development of salt-dome terrain (Petrishchev 2011b). The essence of salt-dome terrain genesis lies in the changes of the properties of natural geosystems under the effect of salt tectonics (Petrishchev 2012). Depending on the ratio of the salt elevation growth rate to the sedimentation processes that camouflage its manifestation,
* Kazhmurat Akhmedenov [email protected] 1
Department of Ecology and Nature Management, Zhangir Khan West Kazakhstan Agrarian Technical University, Zhangir Khan Street, 51, Uralsk, Kazakhstan 090009
the differentiation of geosystems changes due to the complication/simplification of the morphological structure and elevation/lowering of the terrain formation. Halokinesis has diverse forms. This includes large-scale diapirism—multiple subvertical salt bodies (pillars, towers, gigantic droplets, extended ridges, walls, etc.) that cut through sedimentary complexes and often breach even the youngest deposits. Another typical form is allochthonous (alien) salt sheets with sublateral intrusion and spreading of salt on levels higher than the source salt lay
Data Loading...
