MegaChile field workshop across the Andes and coastal Chile

Following the final workshop at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, MegaChile researchers spent a week in the field, from 2016 Nov. 25th to Dec. 1st, to debate on the scientific results obtained by the different project's work packages. 

We thus examined and discussed in the field the geodetic, seismological and tectonic results and issues concerning :

• The structure, seismotectonics of the western front of the Andes in the regions of Santiago (the active San Ramón fault and associated fold and thrust belt) and La Serena-Vicuña, and related seismic hazard.
• A complete synthetic section of the Andes, from Los Andes-Portillo (Chile) to Mendoza (Argentina), across the Western and Aconcagua fold and thrust belts, the basement culmination of the Frontal Cordillera, and the eastern Precordillera.
• The coastal geomorphology and tectonics, in relation with megathrust earthquakes, seismic cycle and segmentation, in the region of the 2015 Illapel earthquake (between La Serena and Los Vilos). 

More widely, the week has also been an excellent opportunity to discuss many of the >20 scientific papers published in the frame of the project, and to examine ongoing issues, subjects to be tackled in coming years, and possible future projects.

"Fallas y Sismos en Chile" workshop at Univ. de Chile in Santiago marking end of MegaChile 4yr project

Updated Publication list

The list of publications related to the project by MegaChile researchers has been updated on 2016 Sept. 14th.

Recently published (2016) papers:

    Grandin, R., E. Klein, M. Métois, and C. Vigny, 2016. Three-dimensional displacement field of the 2015 Mw8.3 Illapel earthquake (Chile) from across- and along-track Sentinel-1 TOPS interferometry. Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, doi:10.1002/2016GL067954

    Klein, E., L. Fleitout, C. Vigny and J.-D. Garaud, 2016. Afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation model inferred from the large scale postseismic deformation following the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule earthquake (Chile), Geophysical Journal International, March 2016, doi:10.1093/gji/ggw086

    Métois, M., C. Vigny and A. Socquet, 2016. Interseismic coupling, megathrust earthquakes and seismic swarms along the Chilean subduction zone (38°s-18°s). Pure and Applied Geophysics, March 2016, doi:10.1007/s00024_016_1280_5

    Ruiz, S., Klein, E., del Campo, F., Rivera, E., Poli, P., Metois, M., Vigny, C., et al. (2016). The Seismic Sequence of the 16 September 2015 Mw 8.3 Illapel, Chile, Earthquake. Seismological Research Letters, 87, 789-799, doi: 10.1785/022015028 

Complete list (2013-2016) is on the Publication page.

Reports of 2013 and 2014 activities and results

New "Reports" page giving access to detailed description of activities and results.

Project Kick-Off

The MegaChile project is funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). It will last from november 2012 to the end of 2015. MegaChile is chaired by two partners - the Laboratoire de Géologie from the ENS Ulm and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) - that host most of the researchers involved in the project. The project has strong links with the Laboratoire International Associé (LIA) Montessus de Ballore (CNRS-INSU), and with the University of Chile in Santiago.

The project kick-off meeting took place at the ENS on January 28th with the presence of 17 researchers. A draft report summarizing the presentation and the discussions that occurred during the meeting, is available as a PDF document. Keynote PDFs of presentation of the four Work Packages are available from the Private zone of this web site.