NORTHERN CAUCASUS

In 2014 a seismic network consisting of 60 stations, 57 of which were equipped with digital equipment, operated in the region. 1695 earthquakes and 63 explosions in industrial quarries were recorded within the region boundaries. In the settlements of the Caucasus, 21 earthquakes were felt. The maximum intensity did not exceed Imax=4 on the MSK-64 (SIS-17) scale. Such intensity was observed from earthquakes in the territories of Ingushetia–Chechnya and Azerbaijan. The aftershock process of the strong East Black Sea earthquake on December 23, 2012 (Мw=5.8) off the coast of Abkhazia continued. In 2014 about a hundred earthquakes with KP=5.3–9.5 were recorded. In the central part of Azov sea, two earthquakes with KP=9.9 and 7.4 were recorded in January and December. The earthquakes with intermediate depths in the Tersko-Caspian trough (Tersko-Sunzhenskaya zone) with КР> 9.5 were not recorded. Two strong earthquakes with KP=12 and intermediate depths occurred in the Kurin Depression of Azerbaijan and in the Caspian Sea. A swarm of weak earthquakes with КР=5.7–8.8 was recorded on December 13–15 in the Black Sea near Tuapse. In 2014 the most part of the earthquakes were recorded in the Tersko-Caspian and Kurin troughs, in the eastern part of the Greater Caucasus. According to the level of energy released, the seismicity of the territory of the North Caucasus in 2014 was characterized in accordance with the “SOUS-09” seismicity scale as “background average” for the observation period from 1962 to 2014.