SEISMICITY OF DEBAR EPICENTRAL AREA

Abstract

<jats:p>Main neotectonic regions in the territory of the Republic of Macedonia are the Vardar zone, West Macedonia and East Macedonia. These regions, being developed within major, regional tectonic units, are permanently uplifting with different intensities. They also show differences in the seismic activity, which is the reason to treat them as separate seismic zones, named with the same names. Debar epicentral area belongs to the West Macedonia seismic zone. This epicentral area is presented by the sinking of Drim graben (valley), crisscrossed by neotectonic faults which coused strong earthquake in 1967y, with Richter magnitude ML=6.5 and intensity Io=IX degrees EMS–1998 scale. After 1900y several moderate (5.0≤ML≤5.9) and light (4.0≤ML≤4.9) and lot of small earthquakes with magnitude ML ≤3.9 are also observed. According to all instrumental data, our latest investigation of seismic activity parameters for this epicentral area pointed out the activity of Elbasan-Debar fault.</jats:p>