A New Aspect of Application of Dendrochronological Analysis for Dating Strong Earthquakes of the Past: A Case Study of the Altai Mountains

摘要

One of the main problems in seismic zoning and distinguishing the territories of high seismic activity is definition of the M_(max) value and the recurrence period for strong events leading to large deformations in relief and affecting the economic activity. Relative to the recurrence period of strong earthquakes, the duration of instrumental observations is very small; therefore, calculation of this parameter implies application of historical and archaeological data, as well as definition of the age for paleoseismodislocations found in the studied territory. The present work proposes a new method of dating the seismic events by means of the dendroseismological method and gives the first results of dendrochronological analysis to determine the age and recurrence period of strong earthquakes during the Holocene in the seismoactive Southeastern Altai Mountains (figure).