On a Discussion on the Correlation of the Bajocian-Bathonian Sections in the Izhma River Basin, European North of Russia

In the Izhma River basin, the Upper Bajocian-Lower Bathonian sections crop out at several localities along the Dreshchanka River. A recently published opinion (Ippolitov, A.P., Kiselev, D.N. "Geological Features of the Bajocian-Bathonian in the Reference Section of the Izhma River Basin (North of European Russia) and the Succession of Ammonites of the Subfamily Arctocephalitinae Meledina," Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation, 2021, vol. 29, pp. 742-755) on the correlation of these sections, as well as the comments made in the same paper on the results of our research, are critically reviewed. The correlation model constructed using the strato-isohypses of the top of the Arcticoceras-bearing sandstone horizon, constructed by Ippolitov and Kiselev relative to four marks of the water level, turned out to be factually unfounded and methodologically unsubstantiated. Arguments against this model are as follows: the low efficiency of the interpolation method on a small sample size when constructing the riverbed dip profile under conditions of intensive meandering of the Dreshchanka River on the floodplain terrace; ignoring the geomorphological situation as a whole; the irrelevance of the topographic map of the 1999 edition; the underestimation of the variability of the low-water position of the water level in different years due to changes in the amount of precipitation.