Abstract
The seismicity of the Romanian Vrancea area has peculiar features: (1) strong earthquakes occur at intermediate depths in a very narrow source volume; (2) the seismogenic zone is situated beneath continental crust, at the SE corner of the highly arcuate Carpathian arc; (3) no evidence for active ongoing subduction is found today. Several geophysical models were developed that tried to provide an explanation for the localization of seismicity at depth (Fuchs et al., 1979; Oncescu, 1984; Tavera, 1991). They contain ideas on interaction of a paleo-subduction zone with more recent subduction and include initial concepts of slab break-off. In recent years new facts and concepts came up that merit a re-evaluation of the tectonic scenarios related to Vrancea seismicity.
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Wenzel, F., Lorenz, F.P., Sperner, B., Oncescu, M.C. (1999). Seismotectonics of the Romanian Vrancea Area. In: Wenzel, F., Lungu, D., Novak, O. (eds) Vrancea Earthquakes: Tectonics, Hazard and Risk Mitigation. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4748-4_2
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