Morphostructural position of seismic distortions at the southern slope of the West Caucasus

Abstract

Morphostructures and ancient very large mass displacements (rockfalls, landslides etс.) are briefly discussed; the displacements are mostly due to seismic and gravitative phenomena and proceeding on erosional-tectonic scarps and at recent grabens edges. In the absence of authentic seismotectonic dislocations they do not permit to estimate the ancient earthquakes magnitude as even weak quakes may induce the displacements on dissected and unstable slopes.