Modern movements of the crust surface in Gorny Altai from GPS data
In 2000-2017, the GPS technology was first applied to study inter-seismic, co-seismic and post-seismic processes in the crust of the Altai Mountains (Gorny Altai). Our study aims at investigating the fields of displacement and deformation in the Gorny Altai region as a part of Asia. The 3D displacement fields are reconstructed for the period before the M 7.3 Chuya earthquake that occurred in the southern sector of the Altai GPS network (49° to 55°N, and 81° to 89°E) on 27 September 2003. Anomalous behavior features are discovered in the displacement orientations, as well as in the distribution of velocities and deformation in the zone of the future earthquake. The spatial displacement pattern defined for the period of co-seismic displacements corresponds to the right-lateral strike-slip along the vertical fault. The fault depth is estimated using the elastic model and the experimental data (change in displacement from 0.30 m to 0.02 m at the distances of 14 km and 84 km from the fault, respectively); it amounts to 8-10 km. The co-seismic deformation field is investigated. In the post-seismic stage (2004-2017), displacements revealed in the epicentral zone show the right-lateral strike-slip along the fault at the rate of 2 mm/yr. Therefore, two-layer viscoelastic models can be considered. The estimated viscosity of the lower crust ranges from 6×1019 to 3×1020 Pa×s, and the elastic upper crust thickness is 25 km. Analyzed are modern movements in the Gorny Altai region outside the Chuya earthquake area. The results of our study show that modern horizontal displacements occur in the NNW direction at the rate of 1.1 mm/yr, which is twice lower than the displacement rate before the earthquake.