SEISMICITY of YAKUTIA in 2016–2017

Abstract

According to the data of 23 seismic stations of the Yakutia branch of GS RAS, the seismicity monitoring of the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) was carried out for 2016–2017. During this period, more than 800 earthquakes with an energy class of KR≥7.1 (magnitude M≥1.7) were registered. This is somewhat more than in 2015 (N=567) and is due to the extension of the time interval of work up to 2 years. The epicenters were located in the zones of interaction between large lithospheric plates: the Eurasian and North American in the Northeastern and Arctic regions, as well as the Eurasian and Amur in the southern regions of Yakutia. The clusters of these events comprised two extended (Arctic-Asian and Baikal-Stanovoy) seismic belts. On the map of epicenters, these zones are displayed as a continuous strip of earthquakes from the Olekma River to the Sea of Okhotsk in the south and in the form of separate groups and clusters of earthquakes between the Laptev and Okhotsk Seas – in the northeast and in the Arctic. The highest seismic activity was noted in the Olekma area, the Stanovoy Ridge and the Aldan Highlands (Southern Yakutia) and the Chersky Ridge and Laptev Sea (in the North-East). Information on the manifestations of local seismicity in the Lena River Delta, where from August 2016 to December 2017 is given. 25 temporary field automatic stations under the joint Russian-German project "Seismicity and neotectonics of the Laptev Sea region" (SIOLA) in 2016–2018 operated. The first results of the distribution of Arctic earthquakes in the lower reaches of the Lena River in space, time, by depth and their connection with active tectonics are considered.