[2] It covers a surface area of 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) northeast of Lake Baikal in North Asia.
The Udokan Plateau lies 400 kilometres (250 mi) east-northeast of the eastern end of Lake Baikal[1] in the Emnakh River watershed.
[3] It covers a surface area of 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) within the Udokan range at altitudes of 1,500–2,000 metres (4,900–6,600 ft).
[6] The Udokan Plateau formed over an older topography left by Jurassic orogeny and later updoming and erosion.
[4] The Udokan Plateau is linked to the Sayan-Baykal uplift and more specifically to a place in the Chara rift where it widens.
Collision of India and Eurasia may have initiated volcanism in the Sayan Baykal region including the Udokan Plateau.
[9] One theory states that variations in lithospheric thickness between the Baikal rift and the Siberian platform generate a convection current in the asthenosphere.
[1] Some lava flows are cut by the Imangra fault, leaving 10–15 metres (33–49 ft) high scarps.
After a period of dormancy, volcanism resumed in the southern part of the field during the late Miocene in the area of the Chukchudu-Yuzhni Sakukan rivers.
With volumes of 200 cubic kilometres (48 cu mi) this volcanism is much more voluminous than the early foiditic phase.
This volcanism mostly consists of lava flows and is subdivided into three suites, including the Nesmura and Amnanakachi sequences.
A later Pliocene episode formed the Turuktak sequence, with a total volume of 40 cubic kilometres (9.6 cu mi) and again three suites named Dagaldyn, Inarichi and Issakachan.
[9] The Vakat group consists of basaltic volcanoes including subvolcanic dykes and sills erupted during the Quaternary.
Activity during this volcanic phase was strombolian in nature with short lava flows and small pyroclastic eruptions.
The first commenced after a period of dormancy and generated mainly four volcanoes, Inarichi, Turuktak, Kislyi Klyuch and Ust-Khangura the first three of which form a volcanic line.
[8] The magma generation changed during the lifespan of the system, either it became deeper or was formed by smaller degrees of partial melting.