Manifestations of recent activation in the southwest of Ukraine and the adjacent territories of Moldova and Romania. Pt. 1

• Date: 2026
• Main Authors: Gordienko, V.V., Gordienko, I.V., Tarasov, V.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: S. Subbotin Institute of Geophysics of the NAS of Ukraine 2026
• Subjects: recent activation; heat flow anomalies; P wave velocities; high-conductivity objects
• Online Access: https://journals.uran.ua/geofizicheskiy/article/view/340645
• Journal Title: Geofizicheskiy Zhurnal

The article concerns the endogenous regime of recent activation in SW Ukraine and adjacent territories of Moldova and Romania. Starting from a chronology of research on the topic, it proceeds to outline the current state of knowledge. There are different views of how the activation manifests and why the deep processes are so difficult to grasp. In the region, it is possible to determine the age and nature of geological phenomena identifiable with elements of recent activation. They are different for the platform part and the Carpathians. In the first case, young vertical movements with anomalously high velocities occurred during the Pliocene-Pleistocene. In the second case, a unique concentration of mantle-depth earthquakes (the Vrancea zone) forms a vertical focal structure. Accordingly, the research is divided into two parts. The heat flow on the platform part of the region and the margin of the Scythian plate has a background level of 50—55 mW/m2and two anomalies of up to 80—85 mW/m2. The anomalies’ intensities and shapes correspond to the calculated parameters of the deep process of recent activation. The differences are due to the crustal intrusions of partially molten mantle rocks, approximately 2—5 million years old, beneath the anomalies. Their thermal models agree with the distribution of seismic wave velocities with sufficient accuracy. It is possible to diagnose even the individual episodes of intrusion of deep superheated material under the crust. Thermal models explain the significant surface uplift during activation, the formation of faults, and the seismicity. The high-conductivity objects also map well unto heat flow anomalies and lie at depths corresponding to intervals of significant superheating and partial melting.