Imaging of small-scale structures and time-dependent changes in the rupture area of the 2010 Maule earthquake

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Frederik Tilmann
• Subject Area: Geophysics
• Term: from 2011 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 197012074

The overarching aims of the entire Bündelantrag have been described in the summary document. In this project we will apply targeted seismological techniques to image the plate interface, i.e., the subduction channel and its immediate surroundings. Using local seismic network recordings of the aftershock sequence of the Mw=8.8 Maule earthquake of 2010, we will map seismic discontinuities using migration and waveform modelling of reflected or converted waves in order to find evidence of small scale variations in the geometry and properties of the plate interface and oceanic and continental crust. We will also apply an event cluster based method that allows determining Vp/Vs/, which is particularly diagnostic to the presence of fluids, practically in situ and, provided the expected abundance of clustered seismicity, also with high temporal resolution. In particular we would like to know in how far transient, possibly fluid driven processes control the immediate and longer-term postseismic evolution and if variations in the topography of the plate interface or the elastic properties of the subduction channel can be correlated with variations in pre-seismic locking and co-seismic and post-seismic slip pattern.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Persons: Dr. Christian Haberland; Professor Dr. Frank Krüger; Dr. Bernd Schurr