| Abstract: | The Baikal system of rift valleys has no evident structural connections with the World Rift System. The peculiar features of its structure, morphology and volcanicity reflect this isolation. The spatial position and major structural features of the system are determined where the central segment (the South Baikal depression) is confined to the junction of two major lithospheric plates, the Precambrian Siberian platform and the heterogenous folded framework of Sayan—Baikal. The contrasting structures and thermodynamic conditions of these two plates, and the deep nature of the suture zone developed between them, have been responsible for the location of crustal extension and proto-rift formation within the Baikal depression proper, first initiated not later than Eocene and then propagating to zones both west and northeastwards. |
