Reply to the comment by R. A. Astini and F. M. Dávila on “TheWest Andean Thrust, the San Ramón Fault, and the seismichazard for Santiago, Chile”

Abstract

International audienceWe have proposed earlier a new tectonic model for theevolution of the Andes mountain belt as a bivergent orogen.Here, to reply to a comment by Astini and Dávila [2010], wediscuss briefly the protracted diachronic evolution (over tensof million years) by propagating deformation at the largescale(over 102–103 km), its influence on basin formationin the back‐arc region (retroarc foreland basin), and themechanical implications of the bivergence in the tectonics ofthe fore‐arc region, particularly the possible effects of theunderthrusting of the coastal crustal‐scale rigid block (theMarginal Block) beneath the West Andean Thrus