The project is organized in five pluridisciplinary work packages (WP) with a main WP (WP1) and four complementary WPs:
The WP1 not only aims at determining the permanent uplift and quantify uplift rates from marine terraces for Quaternary period along the Northern Andes coast. But also, the WP1 will gather the results and will bridge all the WPs to reach the final objective of the project, i.e. to figure out the relationship between the interseismic coupling, the historical ruptures, the background seismicity distribution and the long-term deformation pattern (onshore and offshore).
The WP2 focuses on identifying and locating active crustal faults, computing their mechanical behavior. This will produce a better understanding of the seismotectonics of the forearc zone. This WP implies using and merging both IG-EPN and IGP catalogues in order to relocate regional seismicity and compute improved or new focal mechanisms.
The WP3 deals with the reconstruction of paleo-shoreline evolution through time and identification of zones of offshore uplift and subsidence. An important aspect will be to achieve dating of the sedimentary sequences by sedimentary cores, interpretation of offshore seismic profiles and chronological correlation of offshore sedimentary sequences with marine terraces. Offshore active faults, whether they are or not extension of onshore Quaternary active faults, will be identified on the continental shelf from seismic profiles and bathymetric data.
The WP4 provides the modeling of a reappraised interseismic coupling pattern (as new GPS data are available) for the Northern Andes margin, from Northern Peru to Northern Ecuador. Accurate estimation of the pattern of the interseismic coupling is fundamental for understanding the distribution of the background seismicity (WP2) and the relationship with the long-term deformation as seen by the permanent uplifts (WP1).
he WP5 deals with 3D numerical modeling of crustal motion in a context of a locked patch along the subduction interface. Deformations during the interseismic period will be computed for different rheologies of the upper plate. In particular, crustal motion in zones adjacent to the locked segment will be computed on a fine grid to be able to model uplifted forearc surfaces with a hectometer scale resolution. This work package will explore different modeling approaches to help understanding how to produce a crustal strain driven long term surface morphology due to megathrust mechanical properties.
Diagram of the different tasks and their relationship
