The lake floor morphology of the Southern Baikal rift basin as a result of holocene and Late Pleistocene seismogenic and gravitational processes

Based on an extensive bathymetric data set obtained using modern high-precision swath bathyrnetry instruments, a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the lake floor of the Southern Baikal Basin has been created. In this work we present the morphological analysis based on this DTM. We were able to determine that tectonic activity was directly or indirectly involved in the formation of the main characteristics of the lake floor morphology. Modern tectonic processes are fixed by tectogenic scarps and paleoseismic dislocations that strongly affected the slope surfaces of the depression with detached blocks in the friable strata of the ancient delta front of the Selenga River and landslides on the southeastern shore of the basin. Underwater gravitational processes developed on the slope surfaces and the formation of canyons are also directly related to the tectonic movements. The Miocene-Pliocene sedimentary surface of the Tankhoy field, the bulk of which is below the lake level, currently experiences tectonic uplifts near the shoreline. These uplifts initiated significant underwater erosion, and underwater gravitational processes, which led to the formation of the modern delta fronts of the largest Lake Baikal tributaries and associated canyons.