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自然实验室，研究造山的早期阶段。利用来自阿塞拜疆、亚美尼亚、俄罗斯和格鲁吉亚的106多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地震相关变形的性质。这项研究有助于更好地理解导致地球上山带形成的过程，以及在大陆碰撞中导致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灾害评估，在这些地区，包括一些世界上最大的能源生产国在内的数千人的生命和数十亿美元正面临着周期性破坏性地震的威胁。其目的是提高科学界对地震危害的理解，以及在非常年轻的山带中积极变形地球的力量。高加索地区在后勤和政治上都很难收集到地震数据；然而，我们已经设法与参与该项目的所有国家建立了合作协议，以便彼此共享数据。由于缺乏高质量的数据，该地区在很大程度上没有进行详细的上地幔和地壳地震结构的勘探，因此这项工作几乎可以保证找到有关大高加索地区深层结构的一级信息。这个地震实验有两个组成部分：(1)跨越大高加索地区的台站网格；(2)跨越大高加索地区，由间隔小于5公里的被动台站组成的地震样带。除了临时台站外，本研究还整合了来自国家台网的数据，以产生高分辨率的地震结构图像。该项目打算通过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带的隆起机制之间的关系。

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.