Structured serpentinite melanges of the Koryak-Kamchatka fold system

The Kuyul, Taigonos, and Upper Khatyrka structured serpentinite melanges at the Pacific continental margin of Northeast Asia considered in this paper are diverse in tectonic setting, age, and geological history. They are characterized by an ordered internal structure expressed in regular arrangement of rock blocks different in composition. These blocks make up mappable tectonic sheets deformed into complex, nappe-related folds. Difference in the block composition of particular sheets is often combined with different composition of serpentinite matrix. The structured melanges of Cape Povorotny (Taigonos Peninsula) and the Kuyul Terrane were formed during accretion of oceanic complexes to a suprasubduction zone and their subsequent juxtaposition. The Upper Khatyrka melange comprises oceanic, island-arc, and marginal-sea complexes. The study of structured melanges makes it possible to ascertain the history of continental accretion and transformation of the oceanic crust. The combination of ordering and chaotic structure allows us to consider structured melanges as manifestations of nonlinear geodynamics.