A comprehensive study of the Arctic: key issues of geology and minerageny of the subarctic region of the European Northeast

Age constrains of forming conditions of the Upper PreCambrian deposits of the Timan, Kanin Peninsula, Northern Urals, and Pay-Khoy are determined on the basis of new geochronological data and structural studies. It is discovered that the Parikvas’shor Formation is the youngest straton of the Kharbey Complex. The structural-textual, material and petrochemical characteristics of the volcanogenic and sedimentary Late Riphean associations of the Ochetyvis Fm. and Upper Vendian – Early Cambrian Enganape Fm. of the Polar Urals are compared. The late PreCambrian magmatic associations of the northwestern Pay-Khoy are assigned to the volcanic arc supra-subduction conditions. The data obtained indicate the need to reevaluate the Pre-Cambrian stratigraphic schemes of the region. New data on the composition, formation conditions, and age of the Proterozoic and Palaeozoic basic and alkaline magmatites and veins were obtained for the Middle and Northern Timan. It is proved that the rocks of the Upper Riphean metadolerite association, Upper Riphean-Vendian alkaline ultrabasic Chetlas Complex, Late Devonian basalts and dolerites of the Kanin-Timan Complex, and Early Permian high-potassium alkaline magmatic manifestations belong to the plum formations. In the Palaeozoic of the Pay-Khoy and North Urals region, the event-stratigraphic approach allowed us to identify the interfacial correlation levels and substantiate changes in local and regional stratigraphic schemes. Various biotopes of the Devonian Delta have been reconstructed in the North Timan, including one of the oldest forests on the planet. The remains of a tetrapod, an exceptionally primitive and miniature genus of the oldest land vertebrates, were also found there. Specific features of vegetation and microteriofauna development in the Late Glacial and Holocene periods in the Circumpolar Urals are revealed. The mineral resource base and prospects of its development in the Vorkuta reference zone of the Arctic and adjacent territories are characterized. The issues of ensuring the raw material base of coal mining, the development of coal-chemical processing plants, and the development of coalbed methane reserves are considered. The prospects of the territory in relation to the search for oil and gas deposits, as well as unconventional sources of hydrocarbons – gas hydrates – are shown. Exploration and development of depos- its of chrome ores, barite, gold, fluorite, vain quartz, fresh and mineral underground waters have real potential. The development of deposits, construction mineral raw materials and the creation of a new economic sub-sector on their basis – the Arctic housing construction – has a great socio-economic effect. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the mineral resource base, assessment of the prospects for the development of industrial potential and transport infrastructure, the PanArctic functions of the Vorkuta reference zone are specified.