Sedimentary basins are regions of prolonged subsidence of the Earth’s surface. The driving mechanisms of subsidence are related to processes originating within the relatively rigid, cooled thermal boundary layer of the Earth known as the lithosphere and from the flow of the mantle beneath. The lithosphere is composed of a number of plates that are in motion with respect to each other. Sedimentary basins therefore exist in a background environment of plate motion and mantle flow.

Basin analysis is a comprehensive approach to decipher the geological evolution of a basin by constructing the stratigraphic framework and facies relationships, by mapping and understanding the geological structures in light of their historical development, and by examining the physical and chemical properties of rocks and their sedimentological and petroleum attributes. The purpose of the analysis is to identify potential source rocks and reservoir rocks, and to evaluate the maturation, generation, migration, and entrapment of hydrocarbons in a sedimentary basin. <...>

Basin analysis is a process that requires the collection and integration of a wide variety of different types of data. Many review articles and books are available that deal with some of the individual specialized fields that together constitute basin analysis, such as stratigraphic methods, facies analysis, geophysical methods, sedimentation and tectonics, and sequence stratigraphy; but this is one of the few books that has attempted, now through three editions, to show how these different types of data and the varying types of analytical methodology used in basin analysis need to be brought together to tackle specific basin-analysis problems. The emphasis in this book continues to be on the traditional geological skills of observation, description and synthesis.  <...>

The abitibi orogenic belt
Archean volcanism and sedimentation in the slave structural province
The filling of the circum-ungava geosyncline he huronian supergroup north of lake huron
The hurwitz group, a prototype for deposition on metastable cratons
The wollaston lake belt, saskatchewan, manitoba, northwest territories
The coronation geosyncline of aphebian age, district of mackenzie
Helikian basins and geosynclines of the northwestern canadian shield
The canadian shield, a status report 1970

Предлагаемая монография С.В.Аплонова относится к области бассейнового анализа - одного из наиболее быстро развивающихся направлений современной геологической науки. Она касается самого важного типа осадочных бассейнов - глубоких бассейнов, отличающихся богатой нефтегазоносностью; к ним в России принадлежат Западно-Сибирский, Прикаспийский, Баренцевский бассейны, рассматриваемые в труде С.В.Аплонова. Этот трудпредставляет обобщение исследований автора, начатых в 1982 году.

В осадочных бассейнах формируется основная масса полезных ископаемых: нефть, газ, уголь, соли, железные руды и др. На первом месте стоят углеводороды. Представления об основных этапах развития бассейнов и о строении слагающих их толщ помогают целенаправленному поиску этих ценных природных богатств. Генерация углеводородов происходит в большинстве осадочных бассейнов, и в процессе их развития в них формируются их скопления (залежи, месторождения нефти и газа) - они становятся нефтегазоносными.