Cosesismic displacements and deformations of the Earth’s crust from the world’s strongest earthquakes spread to significant distances from their epicenters. Assessment of the impact of earthquakes on the characteristics of movements and deformations of the Earth’s crust in remote areas is of great scientific and practical interest. The article is devoted to the analysis of the impact of the Turkish Kahramanmaras earthquake (February 6, 2023) on the crustal movements and deformations of the Earth’s crust of the Caucasus region by analyzing the time series of continuous GNSS observations. The velocities of motions in the region, before and after the Kahramanmaras earthquakes were determined. The research results show a significant (and statistically significant) impact of earthquakes on horizontal and vertical crustal movements in remote areas. The following has been confidently recorded: a clockwise reversal of the horizontal movement velocity vectors, a decrease in horizontal velocities, and, predominantly, an increase in vertical movements. The general direction of horizontal movements of the Caucasus GNSS stations is consistent with the postseismic velocity vector of the ANTP station, the closest to the Kahramanmaras epicentral zone, in agreement with the tendency of the Arabian tectonic plate movement. General trends in the combination of pre- and post-seismic movements show the effect of counteraction of the Lesser Caucasus mountain structures to the northeastern pressure of the Arabian tectonic plate wedge. The obtained results provide important information for explaining the mechanisms of regional actuotectonics and the role of strong seismic events in the regime of modern movements of the earth’s crust in the Caucasus.
V.I. Kaftan (Wed,) studied this question.