Schnurr, Bernd, Kopp, Heidrun , Asch, Günter, Tilmann, Frederik and Oncken, Onno (2016) Das Knacken, Knistern und Knirschen beim Verschlucken einer kalten Platte - das IPOC-Observatorium überwacht seit zehn Jahren die Subduktionszone in Nordchile. System Erde, 6 (2). pp. 22-29. DOI 10.2312/GFZ.syserde.06.02.4.

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Abstract

The Integrated Plate Boundary Observatory Chile (IPOC) in northern Chile has been monitoring the largest seismic gap along the South American subduction zone for 10 years. When IPOC was initiated, it has been 130 years the last great earthquake in the region had occurred. And since then the Iquique gap had been accumulating a slip deficit along a >500 km segment of the plate boundary. Since IPOC’s inception two large events, the 2007 M 7.7 Tocopilla and the M 8.1 2014 Iquique earthquakes, have broken parts of the gap. Both events were well recorded by IPOC, produce valuable data and advance our understanding of the subduction megathrust earthquake cycle. Last year, the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) has been extending IPOC with the GeoSEA ocean bottom observatory. In this ambitious project deformation will be measured where it cannot be picked up by land-based instruments, i. e. far offshore near the subduction trench. This will open the crucial updip section of the subduction plate boundary to research. IPOC has thus demonstrated the necessity of long-term monitoring to observe slow or rare events, but also that tenacity and patience pay off.

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