Volcanism as an indicator of a depth mechanism for the formation of the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk

The results of the geochemical studies of the Late Oligocene-Pleistocene volcanic rocks that accompanied the formation of the deep-water basins of the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk are presented. These rocks have an initially mantle origin that is a derivative of a single source—spinel perodotites. They formed as a result of the partial melting of secondary plumes located in the head part of the major mantle plume. This plume rose very closely to the surface in the area of the Japanese (Central) basin, where the marginal-sea basaltoids with chemical properties of HIMU (OIB) sources were established. The continental lithosphere (the upper mantle and the crust) was involved in the magma formation in the area of the Kuril basin and the Vityaz Ridge at the earliest rifting stage in the Late Oligocene-Early Miocene and at the final stage in the Pliocene-Pleistocene.