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On Some Strong Earthquakes in Central Asia in the Second Half of the 19th Century

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Abstract—

Materials on earthquakes in Samarkand and Ferhana regions (Republic of Uzbekistan) in 1868–1892 are presented based on original sources of information not used before. The epicenter location and magnitude for the earthquakes April 7, 1869, and March 2, 1892, are evaluated for the first time; for the other two earthquakes (April 3, 1868, and September 18, 1892), the uncertainty of previously published solutions is significantly reduced. Reduction of uncertainties of prior solutions is achieved owing to the formalized method of epicentral and magnitude assessment, which works successfully with sparse datasets. One of the restrictions on the entire set of solutions is association of the epicenter with certain active tectonic structures. This criterion is used only for selecting the preferable solution from the entire set of solutions obtained solely from macroseismic data. The complete set of solutions is retained and can be used to analyze the accuracy and objectivity of the preferable solution.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are sincerely grateful to Yan Borisovich Radziminovich for valuable comments he made during the writing of this article.

Funding

The study was carried out under the state task of the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, 123242, Moscow, Russia

    N. G. Mokrushina, R. N. Vakarchuk & R. E. Tatevossian

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  1. N. G. Mokrushina
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  2. R. N. Vakarchuk
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  3. R. E. Tatevossian
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Correspondence to N. G. Mokrushina.

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Mokrushina, N.G., Vakarchuk, R.N. & Tatevossian, R.E. On Some Strong Earthquakes in Central Asia in the Second Half of the 19th Century. Seism. Instr. 56, 662–678 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0747923920060055

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