Collaborative Research: The Uplift and Seismic Structure of the Greater Caucasus

该项目利用南亚的大高加索山脉作为研究造山运动早期阶段的自然实验室。 利用阿塞拜疆、亚美尼亚、俄罗斯和格鲁吉亚106个新地震台站的数据，研究人员更好地了解了大高加索地区最近的隆起以及该地区与地震有关的变形的性质。这项研究有助于更好地了解导致地球上山脉形成的过程以及导致大陆碰撞中大地震和火山爆发的地下过程。该项目包括改进大陆变形带的地震危险评估，在这些地区，包括世界上一些最大的能源生产国在内的数千人的生命和数十亿美元面临着经常发生的破坏性地震的风险。其目的是提高科学界对地震危险和在一个非常年轻的山区地带使地球变形的力量的理解。 高加索地区在收集地震数据方面是一个在后勤和政治上都具有挑战性的地区;然而，我们设法与参与该项目的所有国家建立了合作协议，以便相互分享数据。 由于缺乏高质量的数据，该地区在详细的上地幔和地壳地震结构方面基本上没有进行过勘探，因此这项工作几乎可以保证找到有关大高加索地区深部结构的一阶信息。 这一地震实验有两个组成部分：（1）跨越大高加索的台站网格和（2）由跨越大高加索的距离小于5公里的被动台站组成的地震样带。除了临时台站外，这项研究还整合了来自国家网络的数据，以生成地震结构的高分辨率图像。该项目打算用深层地下结构图像解决的主要科学问题是大高加索地区的隆起机制，以及这些机制与一般山区隆起机制的关系。

This project uses the Greater Caucasus Mountains in southern Asia as a natural laboratory to study the early stages of mountain building. Using data from over 106 new seismic stations in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, and Georgia, the researchers gain a better understanding of the recent uplift of the Greater Caucasus and the nature of earthquake related deformation in the region. This research helps gain better understanding of the processes that lead to the formation of mountain belts on Earth and the sub surface processes that lead to large earthquakes and volcanoes in a continental collision. This project includes improving seismic hazard assessment in continental deformation belts where thousands of lives and billions of dollars are at risk from recurrent devastating earthquakes including some of the world's largest energy producers. The aim is to improve the scientific community's understanding of earthquake hazards and the forces that are actively deforming the earth in a very young mountain belt. The Caucasus region is a logistically and politically challenging region to collect seismic data; however, we have managed to establish collaborative agreement with all of the countries involved in this project to share the data with one another. Due to a lack of quality data, the region has largely been unexplored in terms of the detailed uppermost mantle and crustal seismic structure thus this work is nearly guaranteed to find first order information concerning deep structure beneath the Greater Caucasus. This seismic experiment has two components: (1) a grid of stations spanning the Greater Caucasus and (2) a seismic transect consisting of passive stations spaced at distances of less 5 km that crosses the Greater Caucasus. In addition to the temporary stations, this research integrates data from the national networks to produce high resolution images of the seismic structure. The primary scientific question that this project intends to resolve with the images of the deep subsurface structure is the uplift mechanisms for the Greater Caucasus and how these relate to the uplift mechanisms for mountain belts in general.