Continental block motion in the Northern Andes from GPS measurements

Abstract

Summary Northwestern South America is a plate boundary zone where the Nazca, Caribbean and South American plates interact to produce a wide area of active continental deformation from the Gulf of Guayaquil (latitude 3○S) to Venezuela. Previous studies have identified a ∼2000 km long continental sliver, referred as the North Andean Sliver (NAS), squeezed between the Nazca, Caribbean, and South American plates, and escaping at ∼1 cm/yr northeastward with respect to South America. Subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the NAS has produced a sequence of large and great earthquakes during the 20th century along the coast of Ecuador and Colombia. Large crustal earthquakes up to magnitude 7.7 have been documented along the proposed eastern boundary of the NAS. However, active tectonics data, historical and recent earthquakes all indicate active fault systems within the NAS, possibly resulting from the interaction of several tectonic blocks. Here, we derive an extensive horizontal velocity field using continuous and episodic GNSS data from 1994 to 2019.9, covering northern Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela. We model the GNSS velocity field using a kinematic elastic block approach that simultaneously solves for rigid tectonic block rotations and interseismic coupling along the subduction interfaces and along major crustal faults. In contrast to previous results that considered a single rigid NAS, our dense GNSS velocity field demonstrates that the NAS undergoes significant internal deformation and cannot be modeled as single rigid block. We find that block kinematics in the northern Andes are well described by the rotation of 6 tectonic blocks, showing increasing eastward motion from south to north. The Eastern boundary of the sliver is defined by a right-lateral transpressive fault system accommodating 5.6 to 17 mm/yr of motion. Fragmentation of the NAS occurs through several fault systems with slip rates of 2-4 mm/yr. Slow reverse motion is found across the sub-Andean domain in Ecuador and northern Peru at 2-4 mm/yr, marking a transitional area between the NAS and stable South America. In contrast, such a transitional sub-Andean domain does not exist in Colombia and western Venezuela. At the northwestern corner of Colombia, fast (∼15 mm/yr) eastward motion of the Panama block with respect to the NAS results in arc-continent collision. We propose that the Uramita fault and Eastern Panama Deformed Zone define the current Panama/NAS boundary, accommodating 6 and 15 mm/yr of relative motion, respectively. A fraction of the Panama motion appears to transfer northeastward throughout the San Jacinto fold belt and as far east as longitude ∼75○W. Along the Caribbean coast, our model confirms, slow active subduction at ∼4.5 mm/yr along the South Caribbean Deformed Belt offshore northern Colombia and a relatively uniform rate of ∼1-2 mm/yr offshore northern Venezuela. Along the Nazca/NAS subduction interface, interseismic coupling shows a first-order correlations between highly locked patches and large past earthquake ruptures. These patches are separated by narrow zones of low/partial coupling where aseismic transients are observed. Compared to previous studies, our interseismic coupling model highlights the presence of deep coupling down to 70 km in Ecuador.

Cost-Efficient Multi-GNSS Station with Real-Time Transmission for Geodynamics Applications

“…Geophysical disciplines, such as seismology or geodesy, are focused on characterizing as accurately as possible short and long-term processes linked to tectonic plate motions and other Earth's internal deformation processes (loading, fluids, etc.). From the point of view of geodynamics, for example, continuous GPS measurements provide direct information to quantify the surface displacement related to the different phases of the seismic cycle (inter-cos-pos-seismic, episodic and transient slow slip events) and model the potential processes that generate them (e.g., [1,19,20]). Hence, we analyze GNSS observations from the low-cost stations at a 30-second sampling rate to assess their consistency relative to high-class GNSS stations by recording the crustal motion in nearby or co-located sites over a year.…”

Structural Characterization of the Taltal Segment in Northern Chile Between 22°S and 26°S Using Local Earthquake Tomography

“…The geologically active margin in northern Chile, where the oceanic Nazca plate subducts beneath the continental South American plate at a relative rate of ∼66–67 mm/yr (Altamimi et al., 2016; Jarrin et al., 2023; Klein et al., 2018; Metois et al., 2016), offers an ideal setting for seismic investigations of the subduction process in tectonically erosive margins. The lack of anthropogenic noise and the dryness of the soil allow for high Signal to Noise Ratio (NSR) recordings of seismic signals.…”