Seismotectonic features from accurate hypocentre locations in southern central Andes (western Argentina)

Abstract

A local seismic network, over a five-year period, recorded about 450 earthquakes in western Argentina. In this region, the geodynamics is controlled by the subduction of the Nazca plate beneath the South American lithosphere, which is characterised here by a sub-horizontal path before reassuming its downward descent. As accurate earthquake locations are of primary importance when studying the seismicity of a given area, events recorded by the local seismic network enable in-depth investigations into seismo-tectonic patterns, allowing to improve the earthquake source characterization and knowledge on the ongoing seismo-tectonics of the region. To this end, we performed a simultaneous 1-D inversion of both the velocity structure and the hypocentre location. The minimum 1-D model obtained is complemented by station corrections which lead to a first insight into the deeper 3-D structure. In addition, stability tests were performed to verify the robustness of our earthquake location results. They reveal a fairly stable hypocentre determination, demonstrating that the locations obtained by the inversion process are not systematically biased. The results show that Sierra Pie de Palo is characterised by a crustal seismogenic structure, dipping west and extending from its eastern boundary to about 30 km of depth. The study also provided new constraints on the geometry of the subducted slab. We noted a great concentration of shallower seismicity compared to that of the surrounding areas of the Wadati-Benioff zone, at the expected position of the Juan Fernandez Ridge (JFR). Our hypocentres indicate that JFR certainly influences the subduction style along its strike, leading to the formation of a bend in the slab geometry.