Modern fault formation in the Earth’s crust of the Baikal rift system according to the data on the mechanisms of earthquake sources

The spatial characteristics of seismotectonic deformations and the most likely fracture planes in the earthquake sources of the Baikal rift system (BRS) are determined using the method of cataclastic analysis of fractures [1]. It is shown that extension conditions with a strike of modern fractures parallel to the rift-controlling faults are dominant in the central zone and in most of the NE flank of the BRS. The flat average dip of fractures in the earthquake sources of the main fault zones for some rift depressions allow a suggestion about the flattening of faults in the middle crust. The antithetic faults are steeper. The BRS flanks are characterized by dominant shear deformations and more diverse morphogenetic faults in the earthquake sources (strike-slip faults, reversed faults, and normal faults). The modern faults at the BRS flanks weakly inherit the neotectonic structure.