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The Seismotectonics and Seismicity of the Laptev Sea Region: The Current Situation and a First Experience in a Year-Long Installation of Ocean Bottom Seismometers on the Shelf

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Abstract

This paper is a review of current concepts concerning the seismotectonics and seismicity in the Laptev Sea region. The chief feature of the region is a rift system extending in the shelf from the continental slope with the adjacent Gakkel Ridge to the mainland coast. There are several models to describe the present-day evolution of the region, but no one of these is preferable because of the lack of local instrumental observations of shelf microseismicity, while such microseismicity is characteristic of rift zones. One alternative approach consists in the installation of ocean bottom seismometers on the shelf itself. During the 73rd cruise of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, a temporary network was deployed consisting of 7 broadband bottom seismic stations on the Laptev Sea shelf. Comparative analysis of noise spectra based on records of a hydrophone, a bottom seismograph, and a wavegauge, showed that the noise amplitude strongly depends on wind waves, which is in turn dependent on marine ice cover, so that the recording potential of a local network of bottom seismographs is restricted to the winter period of observation.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to Corresponding Member of the RAS I.P. Semiletov who was the expedition leader of the 73rd and 78th cruises of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh (2018‒2019), and to Academician L.I. Lobkovsky for managerial cooperation to conduct marine seismological operations during the cruises, to P.D. Kovalev for aid in organizing measurements of sea waves, as well as to the students of the MIPT and other members of the expedition for aid in shipboard operations to deploy and retrieve ocean bottom seismometers. As well, we thank B.V. Baranov, the head of the Laboratory of Hazardous Geological Processes, Institute of Oceanology RAS, for a comprehensive discussion of issues relevant to the tectonics of the Laptev Sea region.

Funding

This work was supported by State Assignment no. 0149-2019-0005 (a review of publications on seismicity and seismotectonics), by the State Program to Enhance Competitional Potential of Leading Universities in the Russian Federation among the Leading Science and Education Centers Worldwide (Program 5-100) (a description of local instrumental surveys), by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 20-05-00533A (processing of ocean bottom seismometers records, analysis of seismic noise), no. 18-05-60250 (measurement and analysis of wind waves), and no. 18-05-01018 (analysis of earthquake catalogs). The field part of this study in the context of revealing characteristic features in the condition of undersea permafrost and the scale of ebullition methane release was carried out on board the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh for the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 15-17-20032) and for the project of the Russian Government (no. 14, Z50.31.0012/03.19.2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO), Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Nakhimovsky prosp., 36, 117997, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Krylov, A. I. Ivashchenko, S. A. Kovachev, N. V. Tsukanov, M. E. Kulikov, I. P. Medvedev & D. A. Ilinskiy

  2. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), Institutsky per.,9, 141701, Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow Region, Russia

    A. A. Krylov & D. A. Ilinskiy

  3. Tomsk National State Research University, Lenina prosp., 36, 634050, Tomsk, Russia

    N. E. Shakhova

  4. International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Koyukuk Dr. str., 2160, PO Box 757340, 99775, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    N. E. Shakhova

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  1. A. A. Krylov
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  2. A. I. Ivashchenko
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  3. S. A. Kovachev
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  4. N. V. Tsukanov
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  5. M. E. Kulikov
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  6. I. P. Medvedev
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  7. D. A. Ilinskiy
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  8. N. E. Shakhova
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Correspondence to A. A. Krylov.

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Translated by A. Petrosyan

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Krylov, A.A., Ivashchenko, A.I., Kovachev, S.A. et al. The Seismotectonics and Seismicity of the Laptev Sea Region: The Current Situation and a First Experience in a Year-Long Installation of Ocean Bottom Seismometers on the Shelf. J. Volcanolog. Seismol. 14, 379–393 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0742046320060044

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