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Seismotectonics
The September 16, 2015 M 8.3
earthquake occurred ~ 7 km
Trench
Argentina
Chile
offshore of Central Chile, as a
e
result of thrust faulting on the
Peru-Chil
interface between the Nazca
and South America plates. At
the latitude of this event, the
Nazca plate is moving towards
the east-northeast at a velocity
of 74 mm/yr with respect to
South America, and begins its
subduction beneath the
continent at the Peru-Chile
Trench, 85 km to the west of
the September 16 earthquake.
The size, location, depth (~26
km) and mechanism of this
event are all consistent with
its occurrence on the
megathrust interface in this
region.
EQs, 1900-present
EQs, 1971
1922
EQs, 1985 A Century of Large
EQs, 2010
Earthquakes in Central Chile
EQs, 09-2015
Slip (m)
20
Chile has a long history of massive
16 earthquakes, including the 2010 M
12 8.8 Maule earthquake in Central
2015
1943 8 Chile, which ruptured a ~400 km long
4 section of the plate boundary south of
0 this 2015 event (and to the south of
1971 the Juan Fernandez Ridge, which
ande z Ridg
e
enters the trench immediately south
Juan Fern
1985 of the 2015 earthquake). Over the
century prior to the September 16,
2015 earthquake, the region within
400 km of this event has hosted 15
other M 7+ earthquakes including the
2010 M 8.0 and M 7.5 1985 Valparaiso
earthquakes. This subduction zone
also hosted the largest earthquake on
record, the 1960 M 9.5 earthquake in
southern Chile.
A A'
Nazca - South
−80 −40 0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400 440 480 520 560 600 640 680
0 Mainshock
Depth (km)
hypocenter
America Plate
−80
Interface
−160 Slab 1.0
The 2015 Coquimbo
0
No. Earthquakes −24˚ earthquake occurred on
the plate interface
−10 between the Nazca and
−26˚
South America Plates.
Rupture occurred near
−20
−28˚ the Peru-Chile trench,
the surface expression
−30 0 1 −30˚ of the plate boundary.
Depth (km)
A A'
−40
The mainshock
−32˚
hypocenter is in
agreement with the Slab
−50 −34˚ 1.0 modeled plate
interface (blue line). The
−60 red line (top) shows a
−36˚
schematic of the plate
boundary which better
Nazca Plate South America Plate
−70
−38˚ captures the flat slab
100 km nature of subduction in
−80 this region.
−78˚ −76˚ −74˚ −72˚ −70˚ −68˚ −66˚ −64˚
Earthquake Twitter Detection (@USGSTed)
Twitter detection
issued to NEIC in ~45
sec after origin time
Initial instrumental
earthquake location in
99 sec
Collected 85,000
"earthquake" tweets
(“terremoto” or
“temblor”) in the first
hour
Large ratio of
“terremoto” to
“temblor” tweets
quickly indicated a
large earthquake
Earthquake Notification
Updated
Alert
10 Minutes Later https://twitter.com/USGSted
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
ShakeMap Intensity
Instrumental
CITY SIZE
<10,000
10,000+
100,000+
Did You
Feel It?
2M+
Tucuman
Copiapo
(DYFI)
Santiago del Estero
Vallenar Catamarca
La Rioja
30˚S
Coquimbo
30˚S • > 1000 Responses
Ovalle
• Largest nearby
Cordoba
San Juan
reported intensity of
IX
Mendoza
Rio Cuarto
Santiago
Mercedes • Moderate shaking
Rancagua (V) reported in
35˚S Chimbarongo 35˚S Santiago
Talca Metropolitan Area
Linares
1147 responses in 17 ZIP codes and 111 cities (Max CDI = IX)
Los angeles
200 km
$900M
(UTC) (km) MMI(#) Deaths
1973-10-05 168 6.7 VIII(2k) 0
1997-10-15 90 7.1 VIII(3k) 7
1985-03-03 174 7.9 VII(7,023k) 177
Recent earthquakes in this area have caused
La Oficina Nacional de
secondary hazards such as tsunamis,
landslides, and liquefaction that might have •
contributed to losses.
ch
Chile trench
le Tren
Illapel
• Source duration of ~140 sec
i
Peru-Ch
−32˚
Valparaiso
Santiago
−34˚
Slip (m)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
• Followed by ~80+ s of
M 8+ up-dip megathrust
!"#$%"&%#'()**+,-*(.+/0123+4-
rupture
5637*-(863/9-(:%,1+;-(<=+*>;?;
837%-@-=0(#A 837%-@-=0(!A
B:(CD! B:(MD!
E-=0/6?F(0?G-(F-*+>A(!"; E-=0/6?F(0?G-(F-*+>A($!;
H+*I%F3/+0?6=A(!"; H+*I%F3/+0?6=A(J$DCJ'M;
5-,01A(J"D$(4G 5-,01A(!LD$(4G
φ K(L$"D' φ K(L$CD'N
δ = 20.3 δ = 22.9º
λ = 106.2 λ = 87.5º
!"#$%&'(#%$)(O1-(0?G-(F-*+>(+=F(1+*I%F3/+0?6=(6I(01-(I?/;0(;37%-@-=0(P-/-(
I?Q-F(+0(!"(;-9D(RG+091?=S(01-(G6G-=0(/+0-(I3=90?6=T(+=F(01-(F?,(6I(01-(I?/;0(
;37%-@-=0(P+;(I?Q-F(+0(!"DLND
Relocated Aftershocks compared to FFM Relocation Vectors Multiple
Event
Aftershock
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Earthqauke Depth (km) −30˚
Relocations
−28˚
• Depths
−31˚ constrained from
waveform
−30˚
modeling
(Wphase, RMT,
−32˚
etc.) when
possible (colored
circles).
• Mainshock and
−32˚
−33˚ aftershocks
−73˚ −72˚ −71˚
relocate ~5-10 km
W-NW of the single
event locations!
• Seismicity largely
−34˚ absent in FFM’s
Slip (m) region of largest
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 slip!
From Mainshock
!29˚
• Predicted Coulomb stress change
from finite fault model
!30˚
• Coulomb stress change is a measure
of how much a fault is brought closer
to (red) or farther from (blue) failing
!31˚
2m
• Red arrows indicate predicted
4m
horizontal displacement from finite
!31˚
PEDR
fault model
6m
CMBA
Data Source:
University of Chile
!33˚
http://www.csn.uchile.cl/
desplazamientos-del-terremoto-de-
Observed
50 cm illapel-2015/
Predicted
!34˚
!74˚ !73˚ !72˚ !71˚ !70˚ !69˚
Observed InSAR vs Predicted from Teleseismic FFM
Observed Predicted
University of Missouri
University of Chile
EQs, 1900-present
EQs, 1971
EQs, 1985
Summary
1922
EQs, 2010 Mw 8.3 earthquake is on a shallow angle
−28˚ EQs, 09-2015 thrust fault within the subduction zone
Slip (m) plate boundary between the Nazca and
20
South America plates
16
12
1943 2015 Rupture initiated at a depth of about 26 km with
8
largest rupture (> 6 m) occurring up dip (west),
4
toward the Peru-Chile trench
0
−32˚
1971
Aftershocks are primarily in regions adjacent to the
1985 area of maximum earthquake slip and down dip (east)
of the main fault rupture