Russian Geology and Geophysics 49 (2008) 859867 www.elsevier.

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The system of neotectonic faults in southeastern Altai: orientations and geometry of motion
I.S. Novikov a, *, A.A. Emanov b, c, E.V. Leskova b, c, V.Yu. Batalev d, A.K. Rybin d, E.A. Bataleva d
Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the RAS, 3 prosp. Akad. Koptyuga, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia Geophysical Surveys of the Siberian Branch of the RAS, Altai-Sayan Department, 3 prosp. Akad. Koptyuga, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia c Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the RAS, 3 prosp. Akad. Koptyuga, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia d Bishkek Science Station of the RAS, Bishkek, 720049, Kyrgyzstan
b a

Received 25 July 2007; in revised form 31 January 2008; accepted 21 April 2008

Abstract The implications of recent seismological and resistivity data for the geometry and orientations of neotectonic faults are generally consistent with the morphotectonic model of Gorny Altai as an area of crustal failure at the junction of two relatively stable blocks. The model predicts motions under general NW compression mainly on right-lateral strike-slip faults accompanied by systems of pinnate reverse and extensional faults. The locations and mechanisms of aftershocks that followed the 2003 Chuya earthquake (Gorny Altai) indicate long seismic activity generated by a neotectonic NW right-lateral strike-slip fault which separates the North Chuya and South Chuya ranges from the Kurai-Chuya system of intermontane basins. The plane of the northwestern termination of the active fault zone dips in the SE direction, beneath the ranges, at about 70. MT data show two types of conductors that reach the surface, namely, nearly vertical zones along neotectonic faults between the blocks not involved into vertical motion, according to morphotectonic evidence, and inclined zones between the uplifted (subsided) blocks. We interpret the former as strike-slip faults and the latter as reverse or reverse oblique faults, which always dip beneath the uplifted blocks and record the general compressional setting. 2008, IGM, Siberian Branch of the RAS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Altai neotectonics; Cenozoic orogeny; seismology; earthquake mechanisms; seismic tomography; magnetotelluric soundings

Introduction Gorny Altai occupies the broadest northern third of Great Altai, a mountain system which makes the present-day topographic expression of the Great Altai orogen and consists of two parts Gorny Altai and Mongolian Altai having no prominent topographic or tectonic boundary between them. Gorny Altai has the most complex morphotectonics of northward fanning mountains with dividing ranges that strike southwest in the west and north in the northeast (Fig. 1) and decrease in elevation from 30004000 m to 1000 m or lower in the northern and western directions. In the northeast Gorny Altai borders the West Sayan orogen lying orthogonally to the general strike of Great Altai. The West Sayan remains

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: novikov@uiggm.nsc.ru (I.S.Novikov)

underexplored in terms of morphotectonics, and its neotectonic setting is poorly known. On other sides of Great Altai there are relatively stable blocks existing as plainland areas in the modern topography, namely the West Siberian Plain in the north, the Zaisan and Jonggar basins in the southwest, and the Uvs Nuur basin and the Great Lake Depression in the east (Fig. 1). The idea that the Altai mountains are young and related to neotectonic faulting dates back to the early 1900s (Obruchev, 1915). Later the neotectonic faults of Gorny Altai were mapped on regional and local scales (Bogachkin, 1981; Devyatkin, 1965; Erofeev, 1969) but the fault geometry was determined for only three structures. More recent studies proved valid the early inferences made from geological data. In particular, a comprehensive research (Selegei et al., 2001) confirmed that the Lake Teletskoe basin is a young Quaternary rift (Bublichenko, 1939) and studies in the area of the Aktash mercury field (Bondarenko, 1976) corroborated the thrust

1068-7971/$ - see front matter D 2008, IGM, Siberian Branch of the RAS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rgg.2008.04.005

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Fig. 1. Location map of study area in mountain framework of Central Asia. Abbreviations stand for names of mountains and basins: GA Gorny Altai, MA Mongolian Altai, H Hangayn, WS West Sayan, ES East Sayan, WSP West Siberian Plain, ESP East Siberian Plain, ZB Zaisan basin, JB Jonggar basin, UB Uvs Nuur basin, GLD Great Lake Depression, LV Lake Valley.

geometry of Quaternary motion on the Kurai fault (Mukhin and Kuznetsov, 1939). In the late 1950s Devyatkin (1960) inferred Quaternary thrusting along the Shapshal fault from folding of Tertiary sediments in its front. Until recently that was almost all available knowledge of neotectonic faulting in Gorny Altai because the young and very poorly exposed faults elude field measurements of their slip geometry (Novikov et al., 2004 a, b). The limited applicability of fault slip measurements in Gorny Altai may be the reason why even most extensive overviews on Eurasian neotectonics (Kopp, 1997; Trifonov, 1999; Ufimtsev, 2002) miss the neotectonic setting of this area or are confined to its brief sketch (Trifonov et al., 2002) with reference to few publications (Lukina, 1996). We used geomorphological evidence to make up for this shortage bearing in mind the direct linkage between the modern topography and Quaternary fault slip. Having identified the system of neotectonic faults, we developed a new morphotectonic model of Gorny Altai (Novikov, 2004) based on the fault pattern and its relationship with stresses (Dergunov, 1972; Dobretsov et al., 1996), as well as on structural data from Mongolian Altai (Cunningham et al., 1996a, b; Cunningham, 1998), the other constituent of the Great Altai orographic and morphotectonic system. The new model brought together all available field data and allowed us to predict the orientations and geometry of many neotectonic faults. We only waited to check how the

model would fit new data, and these appeared soon, simultaneously from different independent sources. They were seismological and magnetotelluric data. The former came from exhaustive studies of the 2003 Gorny Altai (Chuya) earthquake (Emanov and Leskova, 2005a,b; Goldin et al., 2004; Novikov et al., 2004) and the latter were collected through an MT mission of 2004 when the relatively recent MTS method was applied to the Gorny Altai territory (Bataleva et al., 2005). Before discussing the seismological and magnetotelluric results, it is pertinent to consider the neotectonic framework of the area, especially some of its details which were discovered while updating the new morphotectonic model and never reported earlier.

The morphotectonic model of Gorny Altai The neotectonic structure of Gorny Altai has prominent geomorphic expression, morphotectonics thus being a special case of neotectonics. The tectonic setting of Gorny Altai and the fault slip geometry were reconstructed by morphotectonic methods and imaged in a map (Novikov, 2004) based on a 1:2,500,000 topographic map, with key areas enlarged to 1:500,000. The neotectonic model was further updated using the GIS technology and various ESRI programs.

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Fig. 2. Fragment of digital morphotectonic map of Gorny Altai. 15 systems of faults of different geometries: 1 uncertain geometry, 2 right-lateral strike-slip and reverse oblique faults, 3 left-lateral strike-slip and reverse oblique faults, 4 reverse and thrust faults, 5 normal faults and graben; 6 area enlarged in Fig. 3; 7 profile with projections of aftershocks of 2003 Chuya earthquake; 8 resistivity profile; 9 MTS stations. Roman numerals stand for fault names: 1 Irtysh, 2 Zaisan, 3 Kobdo, 4 Shapshal, 5 Saigonysh, 6 Teletsk, 7 Kurai, 8 Chulyshman, 9 Fuyun-Upper Kobdo, 10 Narym, 11 Tolbonur-Sagsai, 12 Shavla, 13 Katun, 14 Belokurikha, 15 Uimen-Sumulta, 16 West Sayan.

The digital elevation models were borrowed mainly from open file reports of the SRTM project (Farr and Kobrick, 2000). SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) was a NASA international project in which radar interferometry was applied to model the surface topography. The project provided open rounded data with an angular resolution of 3 s, or about 90 m of meridian distance. We here publish, for illustration, a piece of our morphotectonic map of Great Altai, with the reference digital elevation model (Fig. 2), for the area of Gorny Altai and the adjacent part of Mongolian Altai. The largest regional neotectonic structures shared by Gorny Altai and Mongolian Altai are right-lateral strike-slip faults, locally with a significant vertical offset. No reliable evidence of the fault plane dip has been found to date but, proceeding from the general NE compression in the area, we infer the presence of a reverse component and dip planes meeting along the axis of the mountain system. The major faults (Fig. 2) include the Irtysh shear zone (1) delineating the southwestern Altai border and the Zaisan reverse fault (2) which makes the

Altai southern face and abuts on the northern tip of the Irtysh fault; the geometry of the Zaisan fault was inferred from folding of sediments in the Zaisan basin along the fault front. The northwestern edge of the mountain system is marked by the Kobdo shear zone (3), where M 6 earthquakes occurred frequently for the past 200 years, as well as along the Irtysh zone. The Kobdo fault forks in the north into the eastern arm along the western border of the Dzhulukul basin and the Shapshal reverse fault (4) along the northeastern side of the same basin. Further northward the eastern arm of the Kobdo fault passes into the Saigonysh reverse fault (5) and into the system of Lake Teletskoe border faults (6). The NW-oriented western arm of the Kobdo fault acts mainly as a left-lateral strike slip, with its middle connected to the Kurai system of reverse faults (7) that come orthogonally from the west; the zone is known generally as the Chulyshman fault (8). Two more NW strike-slip faults extend into Gorny Altai from the Mongolian Altai axis. They are the Fuyun-Upper

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Kobdo fault (9) with its subsidiary Narym reverse fault (10), and the Tolbonur-Sagsai zone (11). The latter consists of two neighbor strike-slip faults: the Tolbonur zone in the northeast, which joins, through the Shavla normal fault (12), the Katun zone, presumably an extensional fault (13). The northern extremity of the latter abuts on the Belokurikha zone (14) making the northern fault border of Altai. The western end of the Kurai reverse fault gives way northward to the Uimen-Sumulta extensional fault (15). The Fuyun, Sagsai, and Tolbonur faults repeatedly generated large historical earthquakes traceable from surface rupture. The northern extremity of the Tolbonur strike-slip fault was responsible for the Chuya earthquake, which shook Gorny Altai in 2003 and was accompanied by a long sequence of aftershocks. NW right-lateral strike-slip faults running across the whole Great Altai are the most prominent features of its neotectonic framework. In addition to strike slip, they have notable reverse components at the boundary with intermontane basins. The setting becomes more intricate within Gorny Altai where numerous faults splay off the northern ends of the major fault zones. N-S zones most often show an extensional geometry and W-E zones are mainly reverse faults. The regular combination of strike-slip, reverse, and normal faults makes up a classical pattern typical of large shear zones. No large left-lateral strike-slip faults are known in Gorny Altai but there are some within the West Sayan. Such is the Main Sayan Fault along the West Sayan northern face (16), which has been reactivated in the Late Cenozoic and has a well defined left-lateral strike-slip component besides the reverse one. Thus, the neotectonic framework of Great Altai, with its geomorphically expressed faults, can be studied by morphotectonic methods. Furthermore, the geometry of faulting shows up in locations and mechanisms of earthquakes as the crustal failure continues. Additional evidence can come from neotectonic implications of magnetotelluric soundings because the fluid-saturated zones of neotectonic faults appear as conductors. Therefore, we used new seismological and MT data to check and update our morphotectonic model of Gorny Altai. Geometry of active faults, from seismological data It was quite recently that epicenter and hypocenter locations of earthquakes in Gorny Altai were as inaccurate as to allow a very preliminary assignment of large events to their causative faults (Zhalkovskii et al., 1995), while tracing the depthward continuation of faults from earthquake data was a forbidding challenge. Things turned different after the Geophysical Surveys of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Science Academy set up the Altai seismological test site. It was a good choice of place because the activity that began in 2003 localized right there. Already three days after the main shock the seismological network grew times denser due to campaign stations (Emanov et al., 2007), which improved greatly the accuracy of aftershock locations. After relocation, the diffuse pattern of catalog aftershocks became a sharp image of seismicity with horizontal lineations of events, so

that the groups of aftershocks could be tied to the major causative fault zone as well as to its constituent elements (Emanov and Leskova, 2005b). In this study we focus mainly on data collected by the reinforced network when the process moved northwestward to the southern periphery of the Kurai basin, because the locations of earlier aftershocks, when rupture occurred within the southern margin of the Chuya basin, are not accurate enough. The map in Fig. 3 shows events recorded during several campaigns in 2003 through 2005 (Emanov et al., 2007). The earthquakes, relocated by HYPOINVERSE 2000 (Klein, 2002) using a tomography-based layered velocity model, are marked by circles with their sizes proportional to magnitudes converted from the energy scale according to Ms = 5.37 + 0.633(K 14) (Rautian et al, 2007). Earthquake mechanisms were obtained for quite a representative sample of 172 large and small (K < 4) aftershocks (see the mechanisms of several largest events in Fig. 4). The shocks displayed a diversity of strike slip, reverse, and normal mechanisms. Right-lateral strike slip typical of the main shock and most aftershocks appeared parallel to the northern Tolbonur zone which generated the activity. Reverse and normal mechanisms along subsidiary faults produced a classic pattern of a major strike-slip fault with pinnate reverse and normal faults. The pattern of principal stresses for most aftershocks that aligned with the right-lateral strike-slip corresponded to an almost perfectly N-S directed compression (P axis) (Leskova and Emanov, 2006). The sequence of aftershocks recorded discontinuous SE-NW propagation of activity along the Tolbonur fault, which stopped and showed up sporadically in the reactivated fault segment after the deformation had abutted against the junction with the Shavla reverse fault. A number of small events in 20042005 were generated by pinnate faults on the northern Tolbonur fault and by the Kurai reverse fault. The dense network of permanent and temporary seismic stations allowed hypocenter relocation to an accuracy of a few kilometers or even a few hundred meters for many events, for the first time in Gorny Altai. In further updating, we relocated aftershocks using the double-difference algorithm (DD tomography) (Zhang and Thurber, 2003) which combines the advantages of the double-difference and seismic tomography tools. DD tomography was applied to relocate the catalog hypocenters and to model the velocity structure of the seismic area. The projections of aftershocks along the southwestern side of the Kurai basin onto the basin-orthogonal plane (S-D in Fig. 2) indicated that the reactivated fault zone tilted 70 beneath the North Chuya range (Fig. 5). The pattern of hypocenter projections included two nearly parallel zones spaced at about 4 km and shifted toward the Kurai basin relative to its fault boundary with the North Chuya range (Emanov and Leskova, 2005a,b, 2006; Emanov et al., 2004). Interestingly, the activity missed the well pronounced old fault along the mountain toes but involved rather a younger parallel fault which cuts off some part of the Kurai-Chuya system and shows right-lateral strike-slip motion in both earthquake mechanisms and surface rupture (Novikov, 2004). Thus we independently arrived at the idea that compressional

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Fig. 3. Main shock and aftershocks of 2003 Chuya earthquake (located using HYPOINVERSE-2000 inversion with a layered velocity model) and related surface rupture. 1 main shock, 27.09; 11:33, Ms = 7.3; 2, 3 large aftershocks: 2 27.09; 18:52, Ms = 6.4; 3 01.01; 10:03, Ms = 6.6; 4 surface rupture; 58 faults between blocks: right-lateral strike slip and reverse oblique slip (5), reverse and thrust faults (6), normal and extensional faults (7), faults of uncertain geometry (8).

deformation in the area occurs as successive detachment of basin peripheral parts and their involvement with uplift, a mechanism hypothesized long ago from morphotectonic data (Gobian-type orogeny according to Florensov (1965)). More evidence for compression comes from the fact that the plane of the reactivated Tolbonur fault segment, though being a typical strike slip, plunges steeply beneath the range system rather than having a vertical dip. Magnetotelluric data from Gorny Altai A team of the Bishkek Science Station collected MT data from the area of the Kurai-Chuya systems of intermontane basins in 2004 to investigate the lithospheric structure in the epicentral area of the 2003 Chuya event (Bataleva et al., 2005), that being a pioneering electromagnetic study of Gorny Altai. MT soundings were run along two NE and WNW profiles, over 100 km long each. The profiles traversed the seismic area and crossed at the Chagan-Uzun horst near the epicenter of the main shock. The WNW profile was laid along the southern sides of the Chuya and Kurai basins and was sampled at every 815 km; the NE profile, with the same spacing of stations, ran through the Kurai range, the Chagan-Uzun block, and the South Chuya range separated by young faults. That array configuration was chosen to avoid effects from known resis-

tivity anomalies produced by sediments and to collect data across the most important fault boundaries. The processing technique requires data acquisition along two profiles but the resistivity cross section should be based only on the one that crosses linear structures while the profile along the structures remains subsidiary. We used two MT measurement systems with periods 0.1 to 1600 s designed at the Bishkek Science Station. The MT field was measured by 50 to 100 m long dipoles (telluric components) and by inductive sensors or Bobrov MV stations (magnetic components) oriented at 0 (east) and 90 (north). The acquired data were processed using a narrow-band filtering software. When interpreted qualitatively according to the behavior of ReWzx vectors and preferred orientations of impedance polar diagrams, the data indicated an NW strike of major regional MT structures. Thus, the longitudinal resistivity curves were oriented mostly at 110120 and the transverse curve at 2030, respectively. The MT curves from all stations had steep right-hand branches kinking at the end while the right branches of the maximum and minimum curves were conformal. This pattern must be produced by a crustal conductor continuous in both longitudinal and transverse directions. For quantitative estimates we applied 2D inversion using an advanced II2DC optimization program, designed by

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Fig. 4. Focal mechanisms of large aftershocks of 2003 Chuya earthquake (located from DD tomography). 1 aftershocks of 2003 Chuya earthquake (located from DD tomography); 2 events for which focal mechanisms were obtained (with dates and time of origin, depth in km (Z), and magnitudes); 3 faults.

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Fig. 5. Hypocenters of aftershocks of 2003 Chuya earthquake along southwestern side of Kurai basin projected onto plane of profile C-D (Fig. 2). Hypocenter locations are according to DD tomography.

I.M. Varentsov and N.G. Golubev, which can process up to 1000 blocks of a fixed geometry. For the deep structure of faults, we adapted Berdichevskiis partial inversion method and thus improved the resolution and stability of resistivity data. The resistivity pattern reconstructed from ReWzx and ImWzx vectors and the xy and yx impedance phases consisted of a nearly horizontal crustal conductor (longitudinal

conduction of 1000 S) at a depth of ~20 km and vertical and inclined conductors (up to 300 S) rising to the surface (Fig. 6). The inclined and vertical conductors reaching the surface turned out to fit perfectly the zones of neotectonic faults identified in the new morphotectonic model. This match, both in location and orientations, between the conductors and the faults along the MT profile means that the faults show up as rising conductors in the resistivity image. Thus, MT data reveal two types of conductors that reach the surface: nearly vertical and inclined conductors with their dips about 70 and increasing depthward. The vertical conductors follow neotectonic faults between the blocks not involved into relative vertical motion while the inclined conductors separate the uplifted (subsided) blocks. We interpret the former as strike-slip faults and the latter as reverse or reverse oblique faults, which always dip beneath uplifted blocks and record the general compressional setting. The resistivity pattern across the Bashkaus fault, a subsidiary strike-slip fault running along the Bashakus River valley, is especially interesting, with two distinct zones that dip steeply beneath the meeting blocks. This position of fault planes is consistent with a scenario of crustal thickening under regional compression at the onset of neotectonic activity. As we hypothesize, two elongate blocks were thrusting upon the block between them, pushed the latter downward, and became uplifted correspondingly. After the middle block beneath the thrusts had gone down, the zone became a strike slip while the two meeting blocks stopped uplifting. Discussion According to the new morphotectonic model of Great Altai (Novikov, 2004), the neotectonic setting of Gorny Altai consists of NW right-lateral reverse oblique faults, which

Fig. 6. Resistivity cross section along profile A-B (Fig. 2) with interpretation of conductors. 1 and 2 are inferred and observed faults, respectively; 3 MT stations.

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I.S. Novikov et al. / Russian Geology and Geophysics 49 (2008) 859867 Dergunov, A.B., 1972. Quaternary compressional and extensional structures in eastern Altai. Geotektonika 3, 99110. Devyatkin, E.V., 1960. Tertiary deposits of the Dzhulukul basin (Eastern Altai). Dokl Akad. Nauk SSSR 135 (6), 14571460. Dobretsov, N.L., Buslov, M.M., Delvaux, D., Berzin, N.A., Ermikov, V.D., 1996. Meso- and Cenozoic tectonics of the Central Asian mountain belt: effect of lithospheric plate interaction and mantle plume. Intern. Geol. Rev. 38, 430466. Devyatkin, E.V., 1965. Cenozoic Deposits and Neotectonics of Southeastern Altai [in Russian]. Nauka, Moscow. Emanov, A.A., Leskova, E.V., Novikov, I.S, Vysotsky, E.M., Agatova, A.R., 2004. The aftershock sequence of the Chuya earthquake and neotectonics of the epicentral area, in: Seismic Studies of the Crust. Proc. Intern. Conf. on 90th anniversary of Academician N.N. Puzyrev). Novosibirsk, 433441 (CDROM). Emanov, A.A., Leskova, E.V., 2005a. The aftershock sequence of the Chuya earthquake, from DD tomography and earthquake mechanisms. 6th Ural Youth Geophysical Training Workshop [in Russian]. Gornyi Institut UrO RAN, Perm, pp.6367. Emanov, A.A., Leskova, E.V., 2005b. Structure of the aftershock process of the Chuya earthquake (Gorny Altai). Russian Geology and Geophysics (Geologiya i Geofizika ) 46 (10), 10531060 (10651072). Emanov, A.A., Leskova, E.V., 2006. Structure of the epicentral area of the Chuya earthquake (Gorny Altai), from DD tomography. Fizicheskaya Mezomekhanika 9 (1), 4550. Emanov, A.F., Emanov, A.A., Leskova, E.V., Kolesnikov, Yu.I., Fateev, A.V., Semin, A.Yu., 2007. Seismic monitoring of the Altai-Sayan mountain area by the Altai-Sayan Department of the SB RAS Geophysical Surveys, in: Malovichko, A.A. (Ed.), Earthquakes in Russia in 2005 [in Russian]. GS RAN, Obninsk, pp. 5360. Erofeev, B.C., 1969. The Paleogene and Neogene Geological History of the Altai Southern Periphery [in Russian]. Nauka KazSSR, Alma-Ata. Farr, T. G., Kobrick, M. 2000. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission produces a wealth of data. Amer. Geophys. Union EOS 81, 583585. Florensov, N.A., 1965. On the mechanism of mountain growth in Inner Asia. Geotektonika 4, 314. Goldin, S.V., Seleznev, B.C., Emanov, A.F., Filina, A.G., Emanov, A.A., Novikov, I.S., Vysotskii, E.M., Fateev, A.V., Kolesnikov, Yu.I., Podkorytova, V.G., Leskova, E.V., Yarygina, M.A., 2004. The Chuya earthquake and its aftershocks. Dokl. Earth Sci. 395A (3), 394. Klein. F. W., 2002. Users Guide to HYPO1NVERSE-2000, a Fortran Program to Solve for Earthquake Locations and Magnitudes, Open-File Report 02-171.- U.S. Geol. Surv., 2002. http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/openfile/of02-171/. Kopp, M.L., 1997. Lateral Extrusion Structures in the Alpine-Himalayan Collisional Belt [in Russian]. Nauchnyi Mir, Moscow. Leskova, E.V., Emanov, A.A., 2006. Deformation in the epicentral area of the Chuya earthquake of 27 September 2003, K = 17, Gorny Altai, from focal mechanisms of aftershocks. Fizicheskaya Mezomekhanika 9 (1), 5155. Lukina, N.V., 1996. Active faults and seismicity in Altai. Geologiya i Geofizika (Russian Geology and Geophysics) 37 (11), 7174 (6871). Mukhin, A.S., Kuznetsov, V.A., 1939. Quaternary thrusts in southeastern Altai. Vestn. ZSGU 1, 4952. Novikov, I.S. Vysotsky, E.M., Agatova, A.R., 2004a. Neotectonic type structures of contraction, shear, and extension of the northern part of Great Altai (Gorny Altai and Southern Altai). Geologiya i Geofizika (Russian Geology and Geophysics) 45 (11), 13031312 (12481258). Novikov, I.S, Vysotsky, E.M., Agatova, A.R., Gibsher, A.S., 2004b. Large earthquakes of 2003 in Gorny Altai and seismogeology of Great Altai. Priroda 3, 1926. Novikov, I.S., 2004. Morphotectonics of Altai [in Russian]. Izd. SO RAN, Novosibirsk. Obruchev V.A., 1915. Essays on Altai (Essay 2). Tectonics of Russian Altai. Zemlevedenie 3, 171. Rautian, T.G., Khalturin, V.I., Fujita, K., Mackey, K.G., Kendall, A.D., 2007. Origin and methodology of the Russian energy K-class system and its relationship to magnitude scales. Seis. Res. Lett. 78 (6), 579590.

are principal seismogenic structures. The fault planes dip obliquely beneath the ranges at basin borders and are vertical in strike-slip zones free from the reverse component. Seismological data collected after the Chuya earthquake of 2003 showed strike slip on the causative subsidiary faults and a position of the fault planes corresponding to reverse motion on the major fault zone. On the other hand, magnetotelluric data indicated two types of conductors which correlate clearly with faults of different geometries: the vertical conductors correspond to strike-slip and the inclined conductors to reverse and reverse oblique faults. Furthermore, MT data have geodynamic implications wherefrom we reconstructed a possible scenario of deformation implying crustal thickening by ramp-like downward extrusion of a middle block between two meeting blocks under regional compression and formation of strike-slip zones at the junction of two reverse faults. The reverse geometry of most faults along neotectonic blocks traversed by the MT profile confirms Florensovs model of Gobian-type mountain growth in the area. Thus, the new morphotectonic model of Gorny Altai has received support from independent data. The model has been updated through recent years as advanced digital elevation models and GIS data became available but it requires further improvement. In particular, implications are still uncertain for the seismogenic potential of subsidiary extension and compression zones and for the geometry of motion on major faults in the West Sayan orogen which borders Gorny Altai in the east. The reported new data have furnished more evidence for high seismic hazard of major right-lateral strike-slip faults in Great Altai. It remains unclear how far they extend into northwestern Altai. If they continue beyond the systems of reverse and extensional faults of southeastern and central Altai, the existing seismic risk map will need a revision, as a greater hazard can be expected from areas of the northwestern extremities of the strike-slip zones.

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