Aulakogene

(from the Greek aulax— furrow, and genos—birth), an intracratonal mobile belt.

The term was proposed in 1960 by N. S. Shatskii, who defined the aulakogene as a complex furrow-like belt between two similar zones in a craton. Simple aulakogenes are deep (subsidence of the basement may be as much as 5–10 km), narrow (from several tens to a few hundred km) depressions hundreds or thousands of kilometers long, bounded by faults that develop over long periods of time. An aulakogene may cross the entire craton (transverse aulakogene) or may die out within its limits, frequently joining an adjacent geosyncline at its termination. As a result of its development, an aulakogene is transformed either into a shallow folded zone, for instance the Danish-Polish aulakogene, or into a broader and more shallow geosynclinal depression, such as the Dnieper-Donets aulakogene in the Ukrainian geosyncline. Complex aulakogenes which consist not only of graben depressions but of uplifted horsts, also exist—the Witchita uplift of the North American craton, for example. Manifestations of basaltic volcanism are sometimes observed in aulakogenes, and thick accumulations of evaporites are not uncommon.