Spatiotemporal analysis of the distribution of earthquake chains 
 in the Baikal rift system with the purpose of revealing migrating seismicity

Abstract

The study of the phenomenon of migrating seismicity in the epicentral fields of various seismically active regions of the Earth is the subject of many works. Chains of "migrations" of earthquakes are identified using various methods and are often explained by the passage of deformation waves in the Earth's lithosphere. This paper presents the results of studying the spatiotemporal distribution of quasi-linear chains of earthquakes in the Baikal region using statistical approaches and a large amount of initial data on earthquakes of representative energy classes. It is shown that the chains are formed mainly within the Baikal Rift System (BRS) and are confined to zones of seismotectonic destruction of the lithosphere. When studying the lengths of earthquake chains, five maxima of the distribution of chains were revealed, three of which correspond to possible geological and geophysical processes in the BRS lithosphere.