Tectonics and geodynamics of the Ukrainian Carpathians

Integrated analysis based on spatial and temporal correlation of sedimentation, tectonic movements, magmatism and metamorphism made it possible to establish the main geodynamic peculiarities of geological history of the Carpathians during the Alpine tectonic epoch. Two historical turning points - the beginning of Cretaceous and the beginning of Miocene - are the most significant for the whole area of the Carpathian Arc. The first turning point refers to an abrupt shift of quasiplatform and lepto-geosyncline conditions, and to the initiation of a rift-like environment at the joint of the Internal and die External Carpathians. The latter was escorted by basic, mainly submarine, volcanism and by formation of a flysch trough series at the passive periphery of the Eurasian lithospheric plate. The second tinning point marks the end of a long stage of a slow permanent contraction enveloping the flysch troughs' basements. Accumulation of the flysch formation that determines the general litho-facial appearance of the Carpathians took place during that stage. The beginning of Neogene coincided with a revolutionary stage of contraction and orogenesis originating from Eggenbourghian-Ottangian (?). Subsequent new phases of abrupt contraction that took place in Badenian and late Sarmatian completed a complex picture of disjunct and fold dislocations not only in the Carpathians, but in the Neogene molasses of the Transcarpathian and the Precarpathian Foredeeps, too. Development of the Internal and the External Carpathians was to a great extent autonomous at that time. The mechanism of the Carpathians' formation is traditionally explained by the development of a mantle diapir here and by polymorphic-advectional processes. However, it is more appropriate to interpret this phenomenon from the point of view of the Earth's pulsar development concept (V. Kazarinov. P. Kropotkin, E. Milanovskiy). The latter is based on a notion that shifts of the Earth's volume, rotation velocity, and form determine alternation of epochs of prey ailing global extension and contraction.