Geoelectric Model of the Central Part of the North Caucasus: Three-Dimensional Inversion

Abstract

Abstract —Interpretation of magnetotelluric data within the North Caucasus marginal massif, the uplift of the Main Range, and the Stavropol Arch, performed on the basis of one- and two-dimensional inversions of the impedance tensor components and three-dimensional mathematical modeling, makes it possible to compile the starting and test models that are necessary for a three-dimensional inversion. It is shown by the three-dimensional inversion of all the impedance tensor components, carried out on a test three-dimensional model, that it is possible to estimate the parameters of conducting model blocks. The three-dimensional inversion of all the experimental impedance matrix components, performed with account for the results obtained on the test three-dimensional model, significantly corrects the parameters of the conducting blocks identified at the stages of one- and two-dimensional inversions, as well as the three-dimensional mathematical modeling of magnetotelluric fields in the central part of the North Caucasus. In the resulting three-dimensional geoelectrical model of the region, the position of low-resistance blocks correlates with the location of suture zones, deep faults, volcanic chambers, and domains with converted earthquake waves, whose velocities are reduced and whose absorption is increased. This can be explained by the dependence of the conductivity of crustal blocks on water saturation. Earthquake hypocenters are grouped near low-resistance anomalies.