Journal
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
Volume 502, Issue -, Pages 32-45Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2018.08.043
Keywords
rapid coastal uplift; MIS 3; earthquake geology; radiocarbon; northern Chile megathrust earthquakes
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Funding
- Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnologico projects [1161547, 1140846]
- Laboratoire de Mesure du Carbone 14 (LMC14, CNRS-CEA-MCC-IRD-IRSN)
- CONICYT [20010102]
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Over long-term geological scales, the position and vertical movements of the coast are considered to be among the most important effects resulting from first-order plate tectonics interactions in the subduction zones. However, the relationship between short-term vertical deformation driven by earthquakes and long-term coastal uplift in the Andean subduction contact of northern Chile has not been thoroughly elucidated to date. Based on precise radiocarbon dating and geomorphological analysis of littoral deposits in the Mejillones Peninsula at the southern edge of the major northern Chile seismic gap, we report a drastic increase in coastal uplift since marine isotope stage 3 (MIS 3) with uplift rates one order of magnitude more rapid than previously in the Late Pleistocene. Geomorphological evidence supplied by Holocene littoral deposits and marine terraces shows that this tectonic regime could be operating at present. Together with new geodetic data following the 2007 Mw 7.7 Tocopilla event, these observations indicate that coastal uplift results from cumulative coseismic vertical displacement with low subsequent interseismic subsidence recovery driven by both deep-moderate and large megathrust earthquakes. We suggest that the accelerated coastal uprising and earthquake rate over the past 44 ka demonstrated in this work results from changes involving the entire subduction contact between the Nazca and South American plates in northern Chile. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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