Detailed geological-geophysical studies of active fault zones and the seismic hazard in the south Yakutia region

Active faults play the key role in the formation of the morphological structures and control the seismicity in the Olekma-Stanovoi seismic zone. The detailed geological-structural and morphotectonic studies of fault zones made it possible to estimate the kinematics of the active faults and their activity degree in the Holocene (the last 10 000 years). The latter include old faults such as, for example, the Stanovoi Suture of the Proterozoic age. Most of these faults are the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic in age. The studies were aimed at reconstructing the past seismogeological processes and were accompanied by trenching across morphological structures that are presumably associated with zones of active tectonic fractures preliminarily studied by geophysical methods. The applied approach allowed us to substantially specify the available information on the seismotectonics and the potential seismic hazard in the region.