ИСТИНА

The skipping of neotectonic studies of territories with an increasing technogenic load can lead to catastrophic consequences.Research methods based on the relationship between the relief, the tectonic structure and neotectonic movements provide objective material of the relief development in neotectonic time and make it possible to separate active and passive structures to identify dislocation zones.The research was carried out in the area of the Tsimlyansk reservoir, where important engineering objects are located – power plants and the Volga-Don shipping canal. The purpose of this research is to study the latest structural plan of the territory, identify active structures, the latest deformations and determine the degree of their inheritance for planning engineering and economic activities.For the study the structural-geomorphological method (SGM) was used. It supposes the analysis of the relief in horizontal and vertical sections according to different-scale topographic maps. In addition, the method of automated search for linear image elements and the calculation of their statistical characteristics implemented in the LESSA program was involved. The initial information was the GMTED2010 digital elevation model with a resolution of 7.5 arc seconds. To determine the current geodynamic activity of the region, seismic, geodetic and geophysical data have been studied.Fracture structures according to geological and geophysical data are grouped into mutually perpendicular systems of the diagonal and common Donbass directions.As a result of the relief analysis in the study area the neotectonic structures of different levels were identified, coupled with "weak zones" (faults, rocks fracturing). The identified blocks are mosaically located on the area, the main directions of their strike are sublatitudinal, northwestern, in the east – submeridional. Ring structures and their fragments can be seen to the west of the Tsimlyansk reservoir.The lineament analysis clearly establishes the fragmentary manifestation of regional faults. The groups of local lineaments that define the modern relief have been found, most of them have directions from west to north and from north to east. This direction coincides with the general direction of regional faults. Two regional lineaments were revealed, subparallel to the ancient Losev zone and structures of the Dnieper-Donets paleorift.