Open AccessWe have compiled and analyzed earthquake focal solutions for the territory of Mongolia and its surroundings in order to reveal a spatial variability of stress orientation and stress regimes of the crust. According to the stress inversion results, the SHmax is turning from W-E in the eastern Mongolia to SW-NE in the Gobi Altay and the central Mongolia, and then to S-N in the western part of the region. Comparison with data derived from GPS measurements shows that directions of the strain axes revealed by the geodetic and seismological observations are generally consistent. A contradiction is found for the Bolnai zone where results of GPS estimation indicate the predominance of extension (in the SE-NW direction), whereas earthquake data for the longer period of seismic observations reveal compression. Compression in this zone is mainly due to the Tsetserleg-Bolnai earthquakes contribution; however, a part of the recent data on focal mechanisms fits an extensional stress field with the NNW orientated extension axis. These data are in accordance with some published works which suggest a transtensive field from some structural geology studies in the eastern part of the Bolnai zone.
The paper is supplemented with a list of M≥4.5 earthquake fault plane solutions and unpublished focal mechanisms for some M≤4.5 earthquakes of the northern Mongolia and the southern Baikal region.