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Earthquake Depth Frequency Distribution in the Baikal Rift System

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Abstract

Earthquake depth frequency distribution is often used as a constraining factor in assessing lithospheric strength. The accuracy of hypocenter locations is therefore a key factor in these types of analyses. This paper presents a summary of earthquake depth distributions in the Baikal rift system reported in various previous studies. Datasets on both background seismicity and aftershock sequences were analyzed by taking into account hypocenter depth uncertainties. The results show that the most seismically active part of the Earth's crust is in a depth range of 10–25 km. The lower cutoff depth varies for different datasets from 20 to 40 km. The latter value corresponds to the Kichera sequence and coincides with the Moho depth, but other datasets show that the lower 8–18 km of the crust is aseismic. The South Baikal basin is distinguished by the shallower cutoff depth (20–24 km) compared to the datasets outside of it. The peak depths of the earthquake depth frequency distributions vary from 8 to 23 km. Given the depth uncertainties, only the Kumora sequence appears to have double peaks at 9–10 km and 16–17 km. Variations in the lower limit of earthquake distribution and depth of the main peak may imply a spatial change in the depth of the brittle–ductile transition and consequently in the thermomechanical properties of the crust.

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Data Availability

Regional catalogs with depth values are published in the annuals “Earthquakes in the Northern Eurasia” issued by the Geophysical Survey of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to A. Renouard (UBO-IUEM, France) for her constructive suggestions and help with kernel density estimates and J. Deverchere (UBO-IUEM, France) for useful comments. The paper has been significantly improved thanks to the suggestions of two reviewers. The research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 20-05-00357a. This work involved the South Baikal instrumental complex for monitoring hazardous geodynamic processes in frame of the Centre of Geodynamics and Geochronology at the Institute of the Earth's Crust, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (grant no. 075-15-2021-682).

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  1. Institute of the Earth’s Crust, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lermontov Str. 128, Irkutsk, 664033, Russia

    Natalia A. Radziminovich

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Radziminovich, N.A. Earthquake Depth Frequency Distribution in the Baikal Rift System. Pure Appl. Geophys. 179, 619–639 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-022-02952-x

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