ALBERT

Description: The Mejillones Peninsula in northern Chile has been recognized as the surface expression of a segment boundary for large subduction zone earthquakes. The sharp contact between the rupture planes of two instrumentally recorded earthquakes, the Mw = 8.0 Antofagasta (1995) and the Mw = 7.7 Tocopilla (2007) events, is located beneath the central part of Mejillones Peninsula. We present new chronostratigraphic and structural data that allow reconstructing the evolution of the Peninsula at the surface and correlation of the latter with seismic cycle deformation on the plate interface. Uplift commenced after 3.4 Myr, as recorded in the western highland. The central graben area on the Peninsula started uplifting above sea level as an anticlinal hinge zone prior to 400 kyr ago, most probably 790 kyr ago. The resulting E-W trending hinge exactly overlies the limit between the rupture planes of the Antofagasta and Tocopilla earthquakes. By correlating the uplift data with the slip distribution of the above earthquakes, we demonstrate that deformation and uplift is focused during the postseismic and interseismic periods of the megathrust seismic cycle with coseismic deformation opposed to the long-term motion. Additionally, the slip deficit beneath the Peninsula accumulating between events is probably largely recovered by creep. Hence we suggest that Mejillones Peninsula owes its existence to the lateral variation of the propensity for unstable slip at the interface. Since the latter is a material property, the long-term spatial stability of the Peninsula as a barrier to rupture propagation since at least the middle Pleistocene is a necessary consequence.

Description: Abstract Dispersion of low‐temperature thermochronologic data from nine samples collected on a deformed paleosurface preserved on the Cuevas range (Central Andes) can be exploited to unravel complex thermal histories. The nine samples yielded data that have both intersample and intrasample dispersions; the data set includes apatite fission‐track ages (180–110 Ma), mean track lengths (11–13 μm), apatite helium (10–250 Ma), and zircon helium ages (180–348 Ma). We ran inverse thermal history models for each sample that reveal spatial variations of the Miocene reheating along the paleosurface. Next, we ran a multiple‐sample joint model to infer a common form for thermal history for all samples. Our results suggest that initial exhumation during the Famatinian orogeny was followed by a residence between ~2.5 and 7.0 km depth during the Paleozoic and the Triassic. The onset of Mesozoic rifting was responsible for an increase of the geothermal gradient and extensive horst exhumation, which brought the basement of the Cuevas range close to the surface (~1–2 km) in the Late Jurassic. Between the Late Cretaceous and the Paleocene, the combination of low relief, a humid climate, and low erosion rates (0.006–0.030 km/Ma) facilitated the development of the Cuevas paleosurface. During the Miocene, this paleosurface experienced differential reheating with a high geothermal gradient (〉25 °C/km) due to the sedimentary cover and local magmatic heat sources. During the Andean orogeny, in the Pliocene, the Cuevas paleosurface was deformed, exhumed, and uplifted.