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{{more footnotes|date=May 2012}}
The '''Main Uralian Fault''' (MUF) runs north–south through the middle of the [[Ural Mountains]] for over 2,000 km. It separates both Europe from Asia and the three, or four, western megazones of the Urals from the three eastern megazones: namely the Pre-Uralian Foredeep, West Uralian, and the Central Uralian to the west, and the Tagil-Magnitogorskian, East Uralian, and Transuralian to the east. The [[Russian Plate]] is often included as the fourth megazone to the west. On the west side of the fault the rocks represent the sediments of the eastern continental margin zone of the European Plate ([[Baltica]]). On the east the rocks are [[Accretion (geology)|accreted]] oceanic and [[island arc]] [[basalt]]s, [[Ultramafic rock|ultramafics]] and volcanics as well as the sediments of the western continental margin zones of the Siberian craton ([[Angara Plate]]) on the north and the [[Kazakhstania|Kazakhstan craton]] on the south.

==Formation==
The Main Uralian Fault formed in the [[Riphean (stage)|Riphean]] (early [[Neoproterozoic]]) in the breakup of the supercontinent [[Rodinia]] as a [[rift valley]] between the Baltica and the [[Angara Plate]] (Siberian craton). As these two plates pulled apart eventually a [[mid-ocean ridge]] formed. The ridge was of basic (basalt) and ultramafic material. Some 500 million years later, in the [[Silurian]], a [[subduction zone]] formed on the western margin of the Angara Plate, which at the time was on the western edge of [[Gondwana]], and the oceanic plate was subducted underneath the Angara Plate, accreting some of the basalts and ultramafics onto the Angara Plate. [[Sial]]ic sediments were metamorphosed, melted and intruded into the rocks above as [[granite]]s. By the early [[Carboniferous]] the oceanic plates were completed subducted and the eastern margin of Baltica, then on the eastern edge of [[Laurussia]] began to collide with the western edge of Angara. In the south the western edge of [[Kazakhstania]] may have been pushed under Baltica. This collision in known generally as the [[Variscan orogeny]], and specifically as to the Urals as the [[Uralian orogeny]] The collision lasted nearly 90 million years from the Carboniferous to the early [[Triassic]].<ref name="brown&echtler">D. Brown & H. Echtler. The Urals. In: R. C. Selley, L. R. M. Cocks & I. R. Plimer (eds.), ''Encyclopedia of Geology'', Vol. 2. Elsevier, 2005. P 86-95.</ref><ref>L. R. M. Cocks & T. H. Torsvik. [http://www.geodynamics.no/guest/geolsoc06.pdf European geography in a global context from the Vendian to the end of the Palaeozoic]. In Gee, D. G. & Stephenson, R. A. (eds), ''European Lithosphere Dynamics. Geological Society, London, Memoirs'', 32, 83–95.</ref><ref>Victor N. Puchkov. The evolution of the Uralian orogen. ''Geological Society, London, Special Publications'', 2009; v. 327; p. 161-195.</ref><ref>D. Brown et al. Mountain building processes during continent–continent collision in the Uralides. ''Earth-Science Reviews'', Volume 89, Issues 3-4, August 2008, Pages 177-195.</ref> The MUF remained active as the plates ground against each other as [[Pangea]] was formed and the Ural Mountains were raised up.

==Dip==
There is [[seismic]] evidence that the Main Uralian Fault extends very deep, in excess of 15 km, into the crust and [[Strike and dip|dips]] to the east as a result of the subduction zone that formed in the [[Silurian]] along the western margin of the Siberian craton. This is supported by evidence of a north-south magmatic axis in the southern Urals that runs through the East Uralian megazone.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Fershtater, G.B., Montero, P., Borodina, N.S., Pushkarev, E.V., Smirnov, V.N., and Bea, F. |year=1997|title=Uralian magmatism: an overview|journal=Tectonophysics|volume=276|pages=87–102|doi=10.1016/S0040-1951(97)00049-8|bibcode = 1997Tectp.276...87F }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite journal|author=Brown, D., Juhlin, C., Alvarez-Marron, J., Perez-Estaun, A., and Oslianski, A.|year=1998|title=Crustal-scale structure and evolution of an arc-continent collision zone in the southern Urals, Russia|journal=Tectonics|volume=17|pages=158–171|doi=10.1029/98tc00129|bibcode=1998Tecto..17..158B}}
* {{Cite journal|author=Juhlin, C., Knapp, J. H., Kashubin, S., and Bliznetsov, M.|year=1996|title=Crustal evolution of the Middle Urals based on seismic reﬂection and refraction data|journal=Tectonophysics|volume=264|pages=21–34|url=http://www.geol.sc.edu/knapp/Publications/Juhlin%20et%20al%2096.pdf|bibcode = 1996Tectp.264...21J |doi = 10.1016/S0040-1951(96)00115-1 }}
* {{Cite journal|author=Juhlin, C. Friberg, M., Echtler, H.P., Hismatulin, T., Rybalka, A., Green, A.G., and Ansorge, J.|year=1998|title=Crustal structure of the Middle Urals: Results from the (ESRU) Europrobe seismic reflection profiling in the Urals experiments|journal=Tectonics|volume=17|pages=710–725|bibcode = 1998Tecto..17..710J |doi = 10.1029/98TC02762 }}
* {{Cite journal|author1=Kruse, S. |author2=McNutt, M. |lastauthoramp=yes |year=1988|title=Compensation of Paleozoic orogens: a comparison of the Urals to the Appalachians|journal=Tectonophysics|volume=154|pages=1–17|bibcode = 1988Tectp.154....1K |doi = 10.1016/0040-1951(88)90224-7 }}
* {{Cite journal|author=Poupinet, G., Thouvenot, F., Zolotov, E.E., Matte, Ph., Egorkin, A.V., and Rackitiv, V.A.|year=1997|title=Teleseismic tomography across the middle Urals: lithospheric trace of an ancient continental collision|journal=Tectonophysics, 276|pages=19–33}}
* {{Cite journal|author=Puchkov, V.N. |year=1987|title=New Data on the Tectonics of the Urals|journal=Geotectonics|volume=21|pages=108–116}}
* {{Cite journal|author=Puchkov, V.N.|year=1993|title=The Paleoceanic Structures of the Ural mountains|journal=Geotectonics|volume=27|pages=184–196}}
* {{Cite journal|author=Puchkov, V.N.|year=1997|title=Tectonics of the Urals: Modern Concepts|journal=Geotectonics|volume=31|pages=294–312}}
* {{Citation|author=Zonenshain, L., Kuzmin, M. and Natapov, L.|publication-date=1990|contribution=Uralian Foldbelt|editor =Page, B. M.|title=Geology of the USSR: A Plate Tectonic Synthesis|series=Geodynamics series, v. 21|publisher=American Geophysical Union|place=Washington, D.C.|pages=27–54|isbn=978-0-87590-521-1}}

==External links==
* [http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo5xx/geo527/Urals/geology.html Map of Main Uralian Fault showing megazones] Zavacky, J. "The Urals: A Late Paleozoic Mountain Belt"

[[Category:Plate tectonics]]
[[Category:Geology of European Russia]]
[[Category:Geology of Russia]]
[[Category:Ural Mountains]]
[[Category:Seismic faults of Europe]]

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Rjwilmsi: /* Further reading */Journal cites:, added 1 Bibcode using AWB (12061)