Seismic Deformations at Archaeological Sites, in Sediments, and the Relief of Mt. Opuk, Crimeaстатья
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Аннотация:A good degree of archaeological study of monuments of in the Mt. Opuk area (southeast Crimea)allows us, in the very first approximation, to outline the chronology of seismic events. The revealed deformationsof building structures, taken separately, and moreover, taken together, indicate their seismogenic character.In ancient building structures and cultural layers of archaeological sites in the Mt. Opuk area, numerousruptures were identified. Fissures found in the ash pan, fading in the layer of the end of the 2nd–3rd centuryCE are typical seismogenic ruptures. It is possible that this earthquake occurred at the end of the 3rdcentury. The traces of two earthquakes are found at the Hill A settlement. The first earthquake is reflected insystematic clockwise rotations of the submeridional walls around the vertical axis. The seismic impact fromthis earthquake was directed at an angle to the mentioned walls, along the NNE–SSW axis. The building waspreserved and repaired (buttress wall at the northern face of the southern wall of room A). The second earthquake,which was stronger, caused surface rupturing of the source and displacements in the SE part of thebuilding, almost completely destroying it. The time when this room was destroyed dates back to the beginningof the 4th century BCE. Traces of catastrophic destruction are documented in the ruins of a citadel on theupper plateau of Mt. Opuk; the NW tower of the citadel experienced significant deformations; traces of twoearthquakes are found in the barracks; the western curtain wall and the citadel wall were severely damaged.Significant seismic deformations were also studied on the so-called eastern defensive wall, which is mostlikely synchronous with the citadel. The citadel completely ceased to exist in the first half of the 6th centuryCE, possibly after a strong seismic event, which was the final one in a series of destruction of the ancient Kimmerikoninfrastructure. Before the Saltovo-Mayatsk people arrived at the Kerch Peninsula, no traces ofhuman settlements on Mt. Opuk or its vicinity were reported. The traces of two earthquakes are revealed inthe manor belonging to the Saltovo-Mayaki (Khazarian) period of the early medieval Above spring settlement.The first seismic event led to counterclockwise rotation of all submeridional walls of the manor aroundthe vertical axis. This shows that the seismic impact was directed at an angle to these building elements,namely, along the NNW–SSE axis. The building was preserved; only a retaining wall was erected at thesouthern (outer) face of the eastern wall of the room. The second earthquake was stronger: its intense seismicshaking collapsed both repaired and retaining wall in the southern direction, from where elastic waves arrived.The manor finally perished in the 930s–940s CE. Remarkable traces of strong earthquakes are observed inthe topography of Mt. Opuk. According to the collected data, the main rupture on the mountain is seismotectonicin nature; however, the offset value was intensified multifold owing to seaward slip of the rock volume.The fault is a segment of the South Kerch fault zone, which is traced along the Black Sea coast. The lastseismotectonic slip dated here in the area of the ancient city of Kitaia is thought to have occurred in the 3rdcentury CE, or immediately thereafter. Over approximately the past 4000 years, at least three seismotectonicslips have occurred here with a total offset of 3 m or more. The minimum traced length of the activated segmentis 20 km. Using the known global relationships for the parameters of seismic ruptures, the minimummagnitude of this event can be estimated at MW = 6.6–6.9.