Challenging Issues of the Earth’s History and the Central Asian and Circum-Pacific Tectonics, Geodynamics, and Metallogeny (on the 85th Birthday of Academician Nikolai L. Dobretsov)

Abstract

Abstract—This Special Issue celebrates the 85th birthday of Nikolai Leontievich Dobretsov, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The opening paper presents a brief outline of the contributions related to the scientific interests of the hero, which, however, far transcend this limited scope. Hardly there is a field in geosciences where Nikolai Dobretsov would not leave a significant footprint. All over the course of his scientific carrier, he has been prolific in generating new ideas, which he shared generously with the colleagues and numerous disciples. Their papers published in this volume concern key issues of the deep structure and general evolution theory of the planet Earth, including various historic aspects of the geomagnetic field, its relation with the gravity field and with the periodicity of geologic processes, as well as global plate tectonics and plume activity through the Earth’s history. The problems of deep structure are discussed for the cases of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and the magmatic system feeding the Kamchatka volcanoes. The volume is completed with several papers on metallogeny of the Central Asian orogen and the Russian Far East, especially gold mineralization, which was among principal subjects investigated by N. Dobretsov.