Triggered crustal earthquake swarm across subduction segment boundary after the 2016 Pedernales, Ecuador megathrust earthquake

Megathrust ruptures and the ensuing postseismic deformation cause stress changes that may induce seismicity on upper plate crustal faults far from the coseismic rupture area. In this study, we analyze seismic swarms that occurred in the north Ecuador area of Esmeraldas, beginning two months after the 2016 M$_{w}$ 7.8 Pedernales, Ecuador megathrust earthquake. The Esmeraldas region is 70 km from the Pedernales rupture area in a separate segment of the subduction zone. We characterize the Esmeraldas sequence, relocating the events using manual arrival time picks and a local a-priori 3D velocity model. The earthquake locations from the Esmeraldas sequence outline an upper plate fault or shear zone. The sequence contains one major swarm and several smaller swarms. Moment tensor solutions of several events include normal and strike-slip motion and non-double-couple components. During the main swarm, earthquake hypocenters increase in distance from the first event over time, at a rate of a few hundred meters per day, consistent with fluid diffusion. Events with similar waveforms occur within the sequence, and a transient is seen in time series of nearby GPS stations concurrent with the seismicity. The events with similar waveforms and the transient in GPS time series suggest that slow aseismic slip took place along a crustal normal fault during the sequence. Coulomb stress calculations show a positive Coulomb stress change in the Esmeraldas region, consistent with seismicity being triggered by the Pedernales mainshock and large aftershocks. The characteristics of the seismicity indicate that postseismic deformation involving fluid flow and slow slip activated upper plate faults in the Esmeraldas area. These findings suggest the need for further investigation into the seismic hazard potential of shallow upper plate faults and the potential for megathrust earthquakes to trigger slow-slip and shallow seismicity across separate segments of subduction zones

Segmentation and kinematics of the North America-Caribbean plate boundary offshore Hispaniola

We explored the submarine portions of the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden Fault zone (EPGFZ) and the Septentrional–Oriente Fault zone (SOFZ) along the Northern Caribbean plate boundary using high-resolution multibeam echo-sounding and shallow seismic reflection. The bathymetric data shed light on poorly documented or previously unknown submarine fault zones running over 200 km between Haiti and Jamaica (EPGFZ) and 300 km between the Dominican Republic and Cuba (SOFZ). The primary plate-boundary structures are a series of strike-slip fault segments associated with pressure ridges, restraining bends, step overs and dogleg offsets indicating very active tectonics. Several distinct segments 50–100 km long cut across pre-existing structures inherited from former tectonic regimes or bypass recent morphologies formed under the current strike-slip regime. Along the most recent trace of the SOFZ, we measured a strike-slip offset of 16.5 km, which indicates steady activity for the past ~1.8 Ma if its current GPS-derived motion of 9.8 ± 2 mm a−1 has remained stable during the entire Quaternary.Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Heat-flow and subsurface temperature history at the site of Saraya (eastern Senegal)

International audienceNew temperature measurements from eight boreholes in the West African Craton (WAC) reveal superficial perturbations down to 100 m below the alteration zone. These perturbations are both related to a recent increase in the surface air temperature (SAT) and to the site effects caused by fluid circulations and/or the lower conduction in the alterites. The ground surface temperature (GST), inverted from the boreholes temperatures, increased slowly in the past (∼0.4 • C from 1700 to 1940) and then, more importantly, in recent years (∼1.5 • C from 1940 to 2010). This recent trend is consistent with the increase of the SAT recorded at two nearby meteorological stations (Tambacounda and Kedougou), and more generally in the Sahel with a coeval rainfall decrease. Site effects are superimposed to the climatic effect and interpreted by advective (circulation of fluids) or conductive (lower conductivity of laterite and of high-porosity sand) perturbations. We used a 1-D finite differences thermal model and a Monte-Carlo procedure to find the best estimates of these site perturbations: all the eight borehole temperature logs can be interpreted with the same basal heat-flow and the same surface temperature history, but with some realistic changes of thermal conductivity and/or fluid velocity. The GST trend observed in Senegal can be confirmed by two previous borehole measurements made in 1983 in other locations of West Africa, the first one in an arid zone of northern Mali and the second one in a sub-humid zone in southern Mali. Finally, the background heat-flow is low (31 ± 2 mW m −2), which makes this part of the WAC more similar with the observations in the southern part (33 ± 8 mW m −2) rather than with those in the northern part and in the Pan-African domains where the surface heat-flow is 15– 20 mW m −2 higher

Interseismic velocity field and coupling along the Ecuador Subduction interface in relation to the 2016 Pedernales Earthquake

International audienceOn April 16 2016, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred along the Nazca-South America plate interface near the city of Pedernales in Ecuador. GPS measurements in the years prior to the earthquake had indeed shown a partial and spatially heterogeneous pattern of interseismic coupling in central-northern Ecuador (Nocquet et al., 2014, Chlieh et al., 2014). Here, we revisit these models using an updated velocity field including mostly continuous GPS. We find a family of models allowed by the data and discuss their correlation with the slip distribution found for the 2016 Mw 7.8 Pedernales earthquake. Additionally, we investigate if precursory signals were recorded in the GPS time-series prior to the 2016 event. Finally, we present a slip budget for the Ecuadorian subduction since the Mw 8.8 1906 earthquake and discuss its implication for the segmentation and seismic hazard along the north Ecuadorian subduction

Elastic Block model in the North Andean Sliver

International audienceThe North Andean Sliver (hereinafter NAS) lies at the northwestern end of the South American plate (hereinafter SOAM). This extensive area exhibits a complex deformation process controlled by the interactions of Nazca, Caribbean, South America plates, and Panama block, producing crustal seismicity, arc-continental collision, and subduction processes. Previous models based on partial GPS data sets have estimated the NAS kinematics as a single rigid block moving towards northeast at 8-10 mm/yr (Nocquet et al. 2014, Mora-Paez et al 2019). By contrary, geologic interpretations as well as seismotectonic data propose more complex kinematic models based on the interaction of several blocks (Audemard et al 2014, Alvarado et al 2016). Here, we present an updated and most extensive interseismic horizontal velocity field derived from continuous and episodic GPS data between 1994 and 2019 that encompasses the whole North Andean Sliver. We then interpret it, developing a kinematic elastic block model in order to simultaneously estimate rigid block rotations, consistent slip rates at faults and the spatial distribution of interseismic coupling at the Nazca/NAS megathrust interface. Our model is not constrained either by a priori information derived from geologic slip rates or by a priori information of creeping faults. In contrast with previous simplest models, our model will allow us to estimate the degree of slip partitioning more precisely along the NAZCA/SOAM convergence as well as an improved model of interseismic coupling. We will discuss our coupling distribution with respect to previous models, and our block geometry quantifying the goodness of fit, resolution, and considering its consistency with geological interpretations

The tectonics and active faulting of Haiti from seismicity and tomography

International audienceOblique convergence of the Caribbean and North American plates has partitioned strain across a major transpressional fault system that bisects the island of Hispaniola. The devastating M W 7.0, 2010 earthquake that struck southern Haiti, rupturing an unknown fault, highlighted our limited understanding of regional fault segmentation and its link to plate boundary deformation. Here we assess seismic activity and fault structures across Haiti using data from 33 broadband seismic stations deployed for 16 months. We use traveltime tomography to obtain relocated hypocenters and models of V p and V p /V s crustal structure. Earthquake locations reveal two clusters of seismic activity. The first corresponds to aftershocks of the 2010 earthquake and delineates faults associated with that rupture. The second cluster shows shallow activity north of Lake Enriquillo (Dominican Republic), interpreted to have occurred on a north-dipping thrust fault. Crustal seismic velocities show a narrow low-velocity region with an increased V p /V s ratio (1.80-1.85) dipping underneath the Massif de la Selle, which coincides with a southward-dipping zone of hypocenters to a depth of 20 km beneath southern Haiti. Our observations of seismicity and crustal structure in southern Haiti suggests a transition in the Enriquillo fault system from a near vertical strike-slip fault along the Southern Peninsula to a southward-dipping oblique-slip fault along the southern border of the Cul-de-Sac-Enriquillo basin. This result, consistent with recent geodetic results but at odds with the classical seismotectonic interpretation of the Enriquillo fault system, is an important constraint in our understanding of regional seismic hazard

Crustal structure of the Gulf of Aden southern margin: Evidence from receiver functions on Socotra Island (Yemen)

Breakup of continents in magma-poor setting occurs primarily by faulting and plate thinning. Spatial and temporal variations in these processes can be influenced by the pre-rift basement structure as well as by early syn-rift segmentation of the rift. In order to better understand crustal deformation and influence of pre-rift architecture on breakup we use receiver functions from teleseismic recordings from Socotra which is part of the subaerial Oligo-Miocene age southern margin of the Gulf of Aden. We determine variations in crustal thickness and elastic properties, from which we interpret the degree of extension related thinning and crustal composition. Our computed receiver functions show an average crustal thickness of ~ 28 km for central Socotra, which decreases westward along the margin to an average of ~ 21 km. In addition, the crust thins with proximity to the continent–ocean transition to ~ 16 km in the northwest. Assuming an initial pre-rift crustal thickness of 35 km (undeformed Arabian plate), we estimate a stretching factor in the range of ~ 2.1–2.4 beneath Socotra. Our results show considerable differences between the crustal structure of Socotra's eastern and western sides on either side of the Hadibo transfer zone; the east displays a clear intracrustal conversion phase and thick crust when compared with the western part. The majority of measurements across Socotra show Vp/Vs ratios of between 1.70 and 1.77 and are broadly consistent with the Vp/Vs values expected from the granitic and carbonate rock type exposed at the surface. Our results strongly suggest that intrusion of mafic rock is absent or minimal, providing evidence that mechanical thinning accommodated the majority of crustal extension. From our observations we interpret that the western part of Socotra corresponds to the necking zone of a classic magma-poor continental margin, while the eastern part corresponds to the proximal domain

Heat flow estimates offshore Haiti in the Caribbean plate

International audienceHeat-flow in the Caribbean is poorly known and generally low in the major basins and the Greater Antilles arc, but with some high values in active zones, like in the Cayman trough or in the Lesser Antilles Arc. Here we present new heat-flow data for offshore Haiti, which is part of the Greater Antilles arc. We obtain new heat-flow estimates from in situ measurements and Bottom Simulating Reflector (BSR). Both methods suggest a regionally low heat-flow, respectively 46 +/- 7 and 44 +/- 12 mW/m(2), with locally high values exceeding 80 mW/m(2). The high heat-flow values are generally located near faults, and could be related to fluid circulations. Our study confirms a low heat-flow pattern at the scale of the Caribbean but points out the existence of local-scale variability with high heat-flow along the northern faults of the Caribbean region