Scholarly record
ASSESSMENT OF THE HISTORICAL AND RECENT SEISMICITY OF THE BLACK SEA REGION
Abstract
The study of seismicity in the Black Sea region is of particular interest for assessing the vulnerability of the surrounding coastal zones to strong earthquakes and their consequences. The seismicity pattern in the area is determined by the geodynamic processes along the boundaries of the Eurasian, Anatolian and Arabian tectonic plates. The paper presents an approach to assessing the seismic activity of the Black Sea and the surrounding region covering historical and recent seismicity. The historical events since after Christ are included in the catalogue compiled in our previous study, which contains 6468 de-clustered events from 1905 to 2021 with a magnitude M?3. All catalogue data are processed by ZMAP, which is routinely applied in the seismological practice to evaluate catalogue quality and in routine network operations. Based on the Frequency-Magnitude Distribution of the overall catalogue, we compiled the magnitude of completeness Mc, b-value and probability maps with their error evaluations for the two periods: recent seismicity (1977-2021) and including historical events, respectively. The catalogue data show a significant increase in small to moderate (3.0?M<5.0) earthquakes after 1980. The considerable increase in the number of seismic stations installed in the countries bordering the Black Sea increases the sensitivity to earthquake detection capability. The seismic events are clustered to the strongest (M?6) earthquakes and outlined the main seismic zones: Shabla-Kaliakra, the Crimean peninsula, three clusters located on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, and one on the southern coast near Bartin, Turkey. These seismic zones outline tectonic units, with specific seismicity patterns in the locations of the clusters.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References15
Oaie, G., Seghedi, A., & Rădulescu, V. Natural marine hazards in the Black Sea and the system of their monitoring and real-time warning, Geo-Eco-Marina, 22, 2016, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.889593.
Kalafat, D. An Overview of the Seismicity and Tectonics of the Black Sea. In: D'Amico S. (eds) Moment Tensor Solutions. Springer Natural Hazards. Springer, 2018, Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-77359-9_25
EM-DAT. CRED / UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium (D. Guha-Sapir), 2021, Available online: https://www.emdat.be/ (accessed on 30 June 2021).
Oynakov, E., Dimitrova, L., Pashova, L., and Dragomirov, D. Analysis of potential seismic sources of tsunamis in the Black Sea region, using data from various catalogues, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-8278, DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8278.
Wiemer, S. A Software Package to Analyze Seismicity: ZMAP. Seismological Research Letters, 72(3), 373–382. 2001, DOI: 10.1785/gssrl.72.3.373
Reasenberg, P. Second-order Moment of Central California seismicity, 1969−1982. J Geophys Res 90:5479-5495, 1985, DOI: 10.1029/JB090iB07p05479.
Scordilis, E.M. Empirical Global Relations Converting M S and mb to Moment Magnitude. J Seismol 10, 225–236, 2006. DOI: 10.1007/s10950-006-9012-4
Solakov, D., S. Simeonova, P. Raykova, I. Aleksandrova. Empirical relations converting Md and Mp magnitudes applied in Bulgarian seismological routine practice to Moment magnitude. C. R. Acad. Bulg. Sci., 71 (8), 2018.
Woessner J., Wiemer S. Assessing the quality of earthquake catalogs: estimating the magnitude of completeness and its uncertainty. Bull Seismol Soc Am. 95(2):684–698, 2005. DOI: 10.1785/0120040007
Gutenberg B., Richter C.F., Frequency of earthquakes in California, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 34(4):185–188, 1944.
Aki, K. Maximum likelihood estimate of bin the formula logNabM and its confidence limits, Bull. Earthq. Res. Inst. Tokyo Univ.43, 237–239.1965.
Schorlemmer D., Wiemer S., Wyss M., Earthquake statistics at Parkfield, Stationarity of b values. J Geophys Res 109:2004, DOI: 10.1029/2004JB003234
Utsu, T., A method for determining the value of b in the formula logn a bM showing the magnitude-frequency relation for earthquakes, Geophys. Bull. Hokkaido Univ. 13, 99–103, 1965, (in Japanese with English summary).
Wyss, M., Sobolev, G. & Clippard, J.D. Seismic quiescence precursors to two M7 earthquakes on Sakhalin Island, measured by two methods. Earth Planet Sp 56, 725–740 (2004). DOI: 10.1186/BF03353081
Motaghi, K., Hessami, K. & Tatar, M. Pattern recognition of major asperities using local recurrence time in Alborz Mountains, Northern Iran. J Seismol 14, 787–802, 2010. DOI: 10.1007/s10950-010-9201-z
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.