Recent geodynamics: from crustal movements to monitoring the critical objects

Abstract

The evolution of the views on the subject and methods of recent geodynamics over the past fifty years is outlined. Metrological provision of the results obtained by repeated observations by means of ground-based and satellite geodesy is discussed. The substantial dependence of the main characteristics of recent geodynamical processes on the degree of spatiotemporal detail of the observational systems is demonstrated. A possible solution of the paradoxes of large and small strain rates which were detected in the studies at geodynamical sites in seismically active and aseismic regions is proposed. To explain the anomalous deformational activity on the platform faults, the mechanism of parametric excitation is suggested. According to this mechanism, the time fluctuations in the internal parameters of a fault zone (stiffness, pore pressure, friction coefficient) create local strain anomalies under quasi static external loading. The results of strain monitoring are demonstrated by the example of a shelf oil field. It is substantiated that the geodynamical testing sites are a universal instrument for exploring recent deformational processes which offers a unified framework for establishing the spatiotemporal structure of different-scale geodynamical phenomena addressed in the fundamental and applied studies.