Modeling the dynamics of the block structure and seismicity of the Caucasus

Abstract

Based on the morphostructural zoning scheme of the Caucasus, the block structure reflecting the real fault geometry and the block formation of the region is constructed. Several dozens of numerical experiments are conducted for simulating the dynamics of the block structure and the arising seismicity. The modeling relies on the following principles. It is assumed that the structure is composed of perfectly rigid blocks separated by infinitely thin fault planes. On the fault planes and on the blocks' bottoms, the blocks viscoelastically interact with each other and with the underlying medium. At each time instant, the translational displacements and rotations of the blocks are calculated from the condition of the quasi-static equilibrium of the entire block structure. The earthquakes occur in accordance with the dry friction model at the time instants when within a certain segment of the fault the stress-to-pressure ratio exceeds the given threshold. The modeling yields the synthetic catalog of the Caucasian earthquakes the spatial distribution of which reflects a set of characteristic features of the real seismicity. The similarity is observed in the magnitude–frequency diagrams of the synthetic and real seismicity. The comparison of the positions of the epicenters of the strong synthetic earthquakes with the results of recognizing the highly seismically active areas in the Caucasus demonstrates the presence of such epicenters in a few highly active areas where, according to the observations, strong earthquakes have not occurred to date.