A.G. Rodnikov, L.P. Zabarinskaya, V.B. Piip, V.A. Rashidov, N.A. Sergeyeva

During the 20th century the Sakhalin Integrated Research Institute and the Schmidt Joint Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, provided vast funding to investigations of the structure of the crust and upper mantle using seismic methods. The paper is focused on the results from new interpreting of the deep seismic sounding profiles that cross the Sihote Alin and the Sea of Japan and provides data on the structure of the crust and upper mantle in that region. The seismic profiles confirmed certain structural features under the Sihote Alin and the Sea of Japan previously proved by geological data. Certain structural features such as spreading zones, rifts, deep-seated faults, overthrusts, and subduction zones suggest an active type of continental margin in the Far East region. We can assume that a high attitude of the asthenospheric layer which encloses magmatic chambers is responsible for the high activity of tectonic processes in the Far Eastern continental margin and development of new subduction processes which cause the Sea of Japan plate to subduct under the structures of Honshu Island.

Keywords: Sea of Japan, deep seismic sounding, continental margins.