@article{MorenoMelnickRosenauetal.2011, author = {Moreno, Marcelo Spegiorin and Melnick, Daniel and Rosenau, M. and Bolte, John and Klotz, Jan and Echtler, Helmut Peter and B{\´a}ez, Juan Carlos and Bataille, Klaus and Chen, J. and Bevis, M. and Hase, H. and Oncken, Onno}, title = {Heterogeneous plate locking in the South-Central Chile subduction zone building up the next great earthquake}, series = {Earth \& planetary science letters}, volume = {305}, journal = {Earth \& planetary science letters}, number = {3-4}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0012-821X}, doi = {10.1016/j.epsl.2011.03.025}, pages = {413 -- 424}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We use Global Positioning System (GPS) velocities and kinematic Finite Element models (FE-models) to infer the state of locking between the converging Nazca and South America plates in South-Central Chile (36 degrees S -46 degrees S) and to evaluate its spatial and temporal variability. GPS velocities provide information on earthquake-cycle deformation over the last decade in areas affected by the megathrust events of 1960 (M-w = 9.5) and 2010 (M-w = 8.8). Our data confirm that a change in surface velocity patterns of these two seismotectonic segments can be related to their different stages in the seismic cycle: Accordingly, the northern (2010) segment was in a final stage of interseismic loading whereas the southern (1960) segment is still in a postseismic stage and undergoes a prolonged viscoelastic mantle relaxation. After correcting the signals for mantle relaxation, the residual GPS velocity pattern suggests that the plate interface accumulates slip deficit in a spatially and presumably temporally variable way towards the next great event. Though some similarity exist between locking and 1960 coseismic slip, extrapolating the current, decadal scale slip deficit accumulation towards the similar to 300-yr recurrence times of giant events here does neither yield the slip distribution nor the moment magnitude of the 1960 earthquake. This suggests that either the locking pattern is evolving in time (to reconcile a slip deficit distribution similar to the 1960 earthquake) or that some asperities are not persistent over multiple events. The accumulated moment deficit since 1960 suggests that highly locked patches in the 1960 segment are already capable of producing a M similar to 8 event if triggered to fail by stress transfer from the 2010 event.}, language = {en} } @article{MorenoMelnickRosenauetal.2012, author = {Moreno, Marcelo Spegiorin and Melnick, Daniel and Rosenau, M. and B{\´a}ez, Juan Carlos and Klotz, Jan and Oncken, Onno and Tassara, Andres and Chen, J. and Bataille, Klaus and Bevis, M. and Socquet, Anne and Bolte, John and Vigny, C. and Brooks, B. and Ryder, I. and Grund, Volker and Smalley, B. and Carrizo, Daniel and Bartsch, M. and Hase, H.}, title = {Toward understanding tectonic control on the M-w 8.8 2010 Maule Chile earthquake}, series = {Earth \& planetary science letters}, volume = {321}, journal = {Earth \& planetary science letters}, number = {3}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0012-821X}, doi = {10.1016/j.epsl.2012.01.006}, pages = {152 -- 165}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The Maule earthquake of 27th February 2010 (M-w = 8.8) affected similar to 500 km of the Nazca-South America plate boundary in south-central Chile producing spectacular crustal deformation. Here, we present a detailed estimate of static coseismic surface offsets as measured by survey and continuous GPS, both in near- and far-field regions. Earthquake slip along the megathrust has been inferred from a Joint inversion of our new data together with published GPS, InSAR, and land-level changes data using Green's functions generated by a spherical finite-element model with realistic subduction zone geometry. The combination of the data sets provided a good resolution, indicating that most of the slip was well resolved. Coseismic slip was concentrated north of the epicenter with up to 16 m of slip, whereas to the south it reached over 10 m within two minor patches. A comparison of coseismic slip with the slip deficit accumulated since the last great earthquake in 1835 suggests that the 2010 event closed a mature seismic gap. Slip deficit distribution shows an apparent local overshoot that highlight cycle-to-cycle variability, which has to be taken into account when anticipating future events from interseismic observations. Rupture propagation was obviously not affected by bathymetric features of the incoming plate. Instead, splay faults in the upper plate seem to have limited rupture propagation in the updip and along-strike directions. Additionally, we found that along-strike gradients in slip are spatially correlated with geometrical inflections of the megathrust. Our study suggests that persistent tectonic features may control strain accumulation and release along subduction megathrusts.}, language = {en} }