The Central Asian Orogen was reactivated in the Cenozoic, which gave rise to mountain systems and sedimentary basins, strike-slip and thrust faults, ramps, and rift basins under the far-field effect of the India–Eurasia collision. Pre-Cenozoic structures, as well as the superposed Cenozoic deformation, are traceable in the gravity pattern. Analysis and correlation of stratigraphic, tectonic, geomorphological, and geophysical (resistivity and gravity) data from Gorny Altai and tectonic modeling on the basis of apatite fission-track thermochronology show that vertical motions have been the most active for the past 5 Ma. The uplift and subsidence produced, respectively, the Chulyshman and Ukok Plateaus with high mountains around and the the Kurai–Chuya basin between them. Gravity data suggest the existence of Late Carboniferous, Jurassic, and Cretaceous rocks found in tectonic wedges around the basin at the base of its sedimentary fill.

The VES method was used to determine the geoelectric parameters of Cenozoic rocks in the Chuya intermontane basin. It was shown that the polyfacies and polychromous sediments filling the basin are well differentiated by their electrical parameters. A combination of methods used in data acquisition and processing, due to their high resolution capacity at shallow depths, provided information on the structure and physical properties of the Chuya rocks from surface to depths of 250–300 m. Despite a reasonable consistence among these methods to the above depths, the VES method is a more effective tool for detecting shallower layers. Interpretation of the VES data proved the existence of a large outburst channel as new geological evidence for an ice-dammed origin of the Middle Neopleistocene lake. A more detailed layering of the topmost part of the geoelectrical section across the Irbistu–Kokozek interfluve using the VES data revealed a number of fine-grained lenticular structures of the ancient lakes in the Chuya depression, which are hidden beneath a cover of fluvioglacial and lacustrine bouldery pebbles and moraine diamictons.

We processed data from geophysical survey archives of the 1950s acquired in intermontane basins in the Baikal rift, including a large collection of vertical electric soundings (VES) from the Barguzin basin, which remained only partly interpreted. The processing and reinterpretation became possible with the advanced computing facilities and software for forward modeling and inversion, and GIS tools. We estimated the electrical parameters and modeled the complex block structure of the uppermost basement and sediments beneath the Barguzin basin.

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