The earthquake cycle in the Andes subduction zone

Numerical modelling of the earthquake deformation in the Andes

The vast increase in geodetic and seismological data during the last decades is providing increasingly detailed information on the deformation related to the earthquake cycle. At the same time, our knowledge of the Earth's structure and rheology is becoming better constrained by geophysical methods.

Megathrust earthquakes such as the 2010 Maule earthquake in Chile (Mw=8.8) or the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake in Japan (Mw=9.0) attract extensive attention from the scientific community, and several estimates of slip distribution and other parameters related to the earthquake deformation are usually presented for each important earthquake. Albeit detailed, all inversions for earthquake parameters are based on models with simplifying assumptions about the crust's geological properties. The influence of such assumptions on the model results is rarely addressed.

This project aims at investigating the strain and stress induced by megathrust earthquakes, using detailed geomechanical models that incorporate the complex structure and rheology of the Earth. The 2010 Maule earthquake is one of the best recorded megathrust earthquakes to date, and will be the focus of our study. A two-year postdoc position for Marie Keiding has been funded for this work by the Danish Research Council.