Gabriel González

• Universidad Católica del Norte (Chile)

Inland-normal faulting is recognised as an important process following large subduction earthquakes. The lack of data limits the understanding of how normal fault reactivation relates to the subduction earthquake cycle. We characterised the palaeoseismology of the Atacama fault system (AFS) in the Chilean subduction zone. Our results showed that up...

1. El clima futuro de Rapa Nui depende de la evolución de las grandes estructuras atmosféricas del Pacífico Sudeste, en particular de la posición del anticiclón del Pacífico Sur. El desplazamiento del anticiclón del Pacífico Sur hacia el sur como consecuencia del cambio climático generará cambios en el régimen de lluvias de Rapa Nui. Las proyeccion...

Worldwide, all oceanic regions have the capacity to experience tsunami events, but the Pacific Ocean basin is an area with a high probability of occurrence due to extensive surrounding subduction zones. The generation of a tsunamigenic event is related to the occurrence of dislocation in oceanic zones, in addition to the capacity to cause vertical...

This study focuses on quantifying the probability of debris flows or "alluvial activation" along the subsidiary sub-basins of the Maipo River. The Maipo River basin, where the city of Santiago is located, accommodates 35% of the national population. For an appropriate quantification of the risk posed by these phenomena, it is crucial to first chara...

A medida que la población crece y se expone a amenazas más dañinas y frecuentes en un clima cambiante, las naciones deben adaptarse y decidir bien qué, cómo y dónde construir. Para esto, se requiere una mirada integrada e informada de todas las amenazas que acechan al territorio, y así planificar soluciones de adaptación para la infraestructura pre...

Predicting fast mass wasting processes such as landslides is often challenging because of their apparently random occurrence and complex non-linear interactions between in-situ and conditioning parameters. Traditional analysis using susceptibility maps have shown to be a useful tool for identifying parts of the territory that could be more prone to...

The trench-parallel Atacama Fault System (AFS) evidences a long history of deformation since the Cretaceous in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile. Conspicuous fault scarps are expressed in the topography of this cordillera attesting to the most recent fault activity, characterized by normal faulting. Particularly, between 23°-25°S, metric fau...

The Coastal Cordillera in northern Chile forms a structural bulge that overlies the downdip part of the seismogenic zone. Along this cordillera from Arica to Antofagasta, two main structural domains are present: one from Arica city to the Loa River mouth dominated by trench orthogonal faults, and the other from the Loa River mouth to Taltal charact...

El evento hidrometeorológico del 21 al 26 de junio de 2023 afectó la zona centro-sur de Chile y dejó inundaciones en diferentes ciudades. Durante este evento, hubo cuencas que presentaron un aumento significativo de la escorrentía, producto de la precipitación líquida ocurrida en zonas precordilleranas con altas temperaturas. Para entender este de...

La serie de terremotos tsunamigénicos ocurridos entre 2010 y 2015 en la cuenca del Pacífico (e.g., Mw 8,8, Maule, Chile; Mw 9,0, Tohoku-Oki, Japón; Mw 8,1, Iquique, Chile y Mw 8,4, Illapel, Chile) constituyen un punto de inflexión relevante para los esfuerzos científicos sobre la amenaza de tsunamis, dando pistas para destacar la relevancia de la c...

The subsurface, surface, and ionospheric characteristics associated with the 29 July 2021 Mw 8.2 Chignik Earthquake are studied in detail using continuous Global Positioning System (cGPS) data over Alaska. The cGPS‐inverted coseismic displacements demonstrate that the slip is distributed along the rupture area northeast of the epicenter with a maxi...

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai underwater volcano, located 65 kilometres north of Tonga's capital, Nukualofa, erupted at 04:14:45 UTC on January 15, 2022, and resulted in a 1.2-meter tsunami and a massive plume of ash, steam, and gas from the location. Tsunami propagation was observed in Japan, Alaska, North America and South America. Tsunami waves...

The series of tsunamigenic earthquakes occurred between 2010 and 2015 in the Pacific basin (e.g. M w 8.8, Maule, Chile; M w 9.0, Tohoku-Oki, Japan; M w 8.1, Iquique, Chile and M w 8.4, Illapel, Chile) constitutes a major turning point to the tsunami hazard scientific efforts, as they give clues to highlight the relevance of the seismic source compl...

Early inhabitants along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile developed resilience strategies over 12,000 years, allowing these communities to effectively adapt to this extreme environment, including the impact of giant earthquakes and tsunamis. Here, we provide geoarchaeological evidence revealing a major tsunamigenic earthquake t...

Quaternary deformation in the northern Chile forearc is controlled by trench parallel shortening along reactivated Mesozoic faults. Dextral strikes-slip is expressed in NW–SE striking faults of the Atacama Fault System, and reverse displacement dominates in E–W faults. This deformation results of the convergence in a concave-seaward continental mar...

This research performs a sensitivity analysis of response spectrum values for various physical earthquake parameters, which are used to generate synthetic seismograms consistent with the expected seismicity in north Chile. Sensitivity analyses are based on the earthquake scenario and slip distribution model of the 2014, Mw\documentclass[12pt]{minim...

To unravel the relationship between earthquake and tsunami using ionospheric total electron content (TEC) changes, we analyzed two Chilean tsunamigenic subduction earthquakes: the 2014 Pisagua M w 8.1 and the 2015 Illapel M w 8.3. During the Pisagua earthquake, the TEC changes were detected at the GPS sites located to the north and south of the ear...

To unravel the relationship between earthquake and tsunami using ionospheric total electron content (TEC) changes, we analyzed two Chilean tsunamigenic subduction earthquakes: the 2014 Pisagua M w 8.1 and the 2015 Illapel M w 8.3. During the Pisagua earthquake, the TEC changes were detected at the GPS sites located to the north and south of the ear...

seismogenic sources do occur. This fact has led to different approaches for mapping and inventory neotectonic structures. The South American Risk Assessment project promoted the discussion and update under uniform standards of the available information on neotectonic deformation, for its application in regional Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessme...

Southern Peru and northern Chile (17–30°S, 67–74°W) make up a seismically active region due to the convergence of the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate. The region has experienced a number of destructive earthquakes and tsunamis over the past few centuries, which have caused loss of human life and significant damage to infrastructure, highli...

The southern Peru and northern Chile coastal region is an active subduction zone that contains one of the most significant seismic gaps in the eastern Pacific basin (~ 17°S–~ 24°S). Although the gap was partially filled by the 2014 Mw 8.1 Iquique earthquake, there is still a high seismogenic potential to release a Mw ~ 9 earthquake in the near futu...

This study examines the feasibility of applying luminescence dating methods to quartz and potassium feldspar (K-feldspar) grains from Quaternary continental deposits of the Mejillones Peninsula and Coastal Cordillera in Central Atacama, northern Chile. Sediment burial ages were calculated using single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocols appli...

We performed an integrated analysis of the coseismic slip, afterslip and aftershock activity of the 2014 Mw 8.1 Pisagua earthquake. This earthquake seems to be spatially located between two major historical earthquakes, the 1868 Mw 8.8 earthquake in southern Peru and the 1877 Mw 8.5 earthquake in northern Chile. Continuous GPS data were used to mod...

A comparison of the displacements of the earth's surface after an earthquake was made, calculating with the analytical expressions coming from an infinite flat slab approximation and compared with these numerically considering the topography of the Earth. One conclusion of this work is that the flat Earth approximation, has a greater error in the l...

Modern geodetic and seismological data along with active plate boundaries have provided a significant better understanding of the geophysical processes related to the large destructive megathrust earthquakes. For example, kinematic modelling of GPS data suggests the existence of a good correlation between the degree of pre-seismic locking and cosei...

A escala de tiempo geológico, la posición y los movimientos verticales de la costa son considerados como efectos de primer orden del contacto de placas en zonas de subducción (Wesson et al., 2015). Sin embargo, la relación entre la deformación vertical de corto plazo producida por terremotos y el alzamiento costero de largo plazo en el norte de Chi...

Se presentan cuatro casos de cálculos de la deformación de la superficie terrestre debida a un sismo, utilizando un método numérico de elementos de frontera. Se comparan los resultados con aquellos obtenidos de la usual aproximación de Tierra plana.

The Chilean Andes, as a characteristic tectonic and geomorphological region, is a perfect location to unravel the geologic nature of seismic hazards. The Chilean segment of the Nazca-South American subduction zone has experienced mega-earthquakes with Moment Magnitudes (Mw) >8.5 (e.g., Mw 9.5 Valdivia, 1960; Mw 8.8 Maule, 2010) and many large earth...

The plate interface beneath the Mejillones Peninsula in Northern Chile is characterized by anomalous seismogenic behaviors, with seismic and aseismic slip, and low coupling values. We analyze this zone through the seismicity pattern and a 3-D tomography model. We identify high VP/VS values within the oceanic crust and in the lower continental crust...

We present Late Pleistocene apparent uplift rates for the Mejillones Peninsula, in the northern Chile subduction zone. Our estimates are made from a flight of marine abrasion terraces dated with cosmogenic 10Be; we determine a fast and slightly variable uplift rate during the last ca. 500 ka, which ranges between ca. 0.47 and ca. 0.58 m/ka. These v...

Risk evaluation and loss analysis is key in foreseeing the impact of disasters caused by natural hazards and may contribute effectively in improving resilience in a community through the pre-evaluation of preparedness and mitigation actions. The pilot study presented herein is for the Chilean city of Iquique, which is located at the core of a seism...

The variability in obtaining estimates of tsunami inundation and runup on a near-real-time tsunami hazard assessment setting is evaluated. To this end, 19 different source models of the Maule Earthquake were considered as if they represented the best available knowledge an early tsunami warning system could consider. Results show that large variabi...

General orthogonal regression (GOR) is a superior regression procedure for conversion of different magnitude types into preferred ones. It yields a linear relation between dependent (Yt) and independent variable (Xt) based on observed data (Xobs, Yobs). Recent investigations have shown that the conventional GOR procedure for obtaining Yt by substit...

Plausible worst-case tsunamigenic scenarios definition plays a relevant role in tsunami hazard assessment focused in emergency preparedness and evacuation planning for coastal communities. During the last decade, the occurrence of major and moderate tsunamigenic earthquakes along worldwide subduction zones has given clues about critical parameters...

The 2017 Mw 8.1, Tehuantepec earthquake generated a moderated tsunami, which was registered in near-field tide gauges network activating a tsunami threat state for Mexico issued by PTWC. In the case of Chile, the forecast of tsunami waves indicate amplitudes less than 0.3 meters above the tide level, advising an informative state of threat, without...

The forearc region of the Central Andes is characterized by active faults. Nevertheless, the submarine cartography and activity of these faults are almost unknown. Here, we report late Pleistocene-Holocene surface deformation and active submarine normal faulting on the continental shelf of the northern Mejillones Peninsula. Trough differential GPS...

Mejillones Peninsula, in Northern Chile, presents one of the best-preserved sets of beach-ridges of the Chilean coast. This coastal deposit comprises more than 300 beach-ridges from 20 up to 200 masl. The two last big earthquakes that affected the area resulted in the uplifting of the coast up to ~80 cm [1]. Thus, the study of this beach-ridges seq...

We constructed a seismic source model for the 2015 MW 8.3 Illapel, Chile earthquake, which was carried out with the kinematic waveform inversion method adopting a novel inversion formulation that takes into account the uncertainty in the Green’s function, together with the hybrid backprojection method enabling us to track the spatiotemporal distrib...

The lithosphere and the atmosphere/ionosphere continuously exchange energy through various coupling mechanisms. In particular, the earth surface displacement caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis can manifest as ionospheric plasma perturbations. We investigate the coseismic induced ionospheric total electron content (TEC) perturbations foll...

On September 16, 2015 a magnitude Mw 8.3 earthquake took place off the coast of the Coquimbo Region, Chile. Three tsunami survey teams covered approximately 700 km of the Pacific coast. The teams surveyed the area, recording 83 tsunami flow depth and runup measurements. The maximum runup was found to be 10.8 m at only one small bay, in front of the...

We analysed the coseismic and early postseismic deformation of the 2015, Mw 8.3 Illapel earthquake by inverting 13 cGPS time series. The seismic rupture concentrated in a shallow (<20 km depth) and 100 km long asperity, which slipped up to 8 m, releasing a seismic moment of 3.6 × 1021 Nm (Mw = 8.3). After 43-days, postseismic afterslip encompassed...

The 2014 MW = 8.1 Iquique (Pisagua), Chile earthquake sequence ruptured a segment of the Nazca-South America subduction zone that last hosted a great earthquake in 1877. The sequence opened >3,700 surface cracks in the fore arc of decameter-scale length and millimeter-to centimeter-scale aperture. We use the strikes of measured cracks, inferred to...

During the last decades, major tsunamigenic events as Mw 9.2 Sumatra – Andaman, 2004, Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile and Mw 9.0 Tohoku – Oki, Japan have provided valuable information to the scientific community about predominant processes in the generation, propagation and impact of a tsunami on far and near – field coastal zones. In this context, new insight...

The Mejillones Peninsula – located at the continental active margin of the Central Andes, northern Chile – is a first order geomorphic feature characterized by uplifted Pleistocene marine terraces and beach-ridges. Based on radiocarbon and Optically Stimulated Luminescence results, we dated marine deposits located up to 21 m a.s.l. as 31 – 46 ka, w...

The lithosphere and the atmosphere/ionosphere continuously exchange energy through various coupling mechanisms. In particular, the earth surface displacement caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis can manifest as ionospheric plasma perturbations. We investigate the coseismic induced ionospheric total electron content (TEC) perturbations foll...

The A.D. 2014 Pisagua earthquake sequence reactivated ancient surface cracks along the entire rupture length in the northern Chilean forearc. These subtle brittle strain features that are ~50 km above the subduction zone interface in the hyperarid Atacama Desert record deformation from the single earthquake sequence. In this study we document how a...

We constructed a seismic source model for the 2015 M W 8.3 Illapel, Chile earthquake, which was carried out with the kinematic waveform inversion method adopting a novel inversion formulation that takes into account the uncertainty in the Green’s function, together with the hybrid backprojection method enabling us to track the spatiotemporal distri...

On September 16, 2015 a magnitude Mw 8.3 earthquake took place off the coast of the Coquimbo Region, Chile. Three tsunami survey teams covered approximately 700 km of the Pacific coast. The teams surveyed the area, recording 83 tsunami flow depth and runup measurements. The maximum runup was found to be 10.8 m at only one small bay, in front of the...

Tsunami inundation maps are a powerful tool to design evacuation plans of coastal communities, additionally can be used as a guide to territorial planning and assessment of structural damages in port facilities and critical infrastructure (Borrero et al., 2003; Barberopoulou et al., 2011; Power et al., 2012; Mueller et al., 2015). The accuracy of i...

Las zonas costeras del sur de Perú y norte de Chile han sido reconocidas como brechas sísmicas maduras con un alto potencial sismogénico asociado con el déficit de momento sísmico acumulado desde el evento mayor de 1877. Una importante pregunta científica es cuál será el patrón de ruptura de un terremoto de subducción futuro, siendo relevante para...

The Mejillones Peninsula is a first order morphostructural feature located at the active margin of northern Chile, in the Central Andes external forearc, where part of the continental shelf has been uplifted. Conspicuous Pleistocene marine terraces and paleo beach-ridges evidence this uprising. In this geomorphic and tectonic setting it has been di...

. Los mapas de inundación por tsunami son una importante herramienta para el diseño de planes de evacuación, planificación territorial y evaluación de daños en infraestructura crítica. La estimación de amenaza de tsunami para el margen continental chileno es basada en modelos de dislocación simple para escenarios históricos, construidos usando leye...

After 137 years without a great earthquake, the Mw 8.1 Pisagua event of 1 April 2014 occurred in the central portion of the southern Peru–northern Chile subduction zone. This megathrust earthquake was preceded by more than 2 weeks of foreshock activity migrating ∼3.5 km/ day toward the mainshock hypocenter. This foreshock sequence was triggered by...

Tsunami inundation maps are powerful tool to design evacuation plans of coastal communities, additionally can be used as guide of territorial planning and assessment of structural damages in port facilities. The precision of inundation estimation is highly correlated with tsunami initial condition, generally calculated using homogeneous rupture mod...

On April 1st, 2014, an earthquake with moment magnitude Mw 8.2 occurred off the coast of northern Chile, generating a tsunami that prompted evacuation along the Chilean coast. Here, tsunami characteristics are analyzed through a combination of field data and numerical modeling. Despite the earthquake magnitude, the tsunami was moderate, with a rela...

The Mejillones Peninsula (23ºS) is an anomalous geomorphologic and tectonic feature along the subduction margin of the Central Andes, characterized by Quaternary uplifted littoral ridges, marine terraces and active crustal faults. It lies at the southern edge of the Northern Chile seismic gap, where the last large event Mw~8.8 occurred on 1877. The...

The March 16–April 3, 2014 Pisagua earthquake sequence ruptured the middle part of the southern Peru-northern Chile seismic gap in the curved segment of the Andean subduction zone. The sequence began on March 16, with an Mw 6.7 earthquake that struck near the central section of the gap. A few hours after this initial event, intense seismic activity...

The chilean continental margin lies in the western margin of the South American plate. The interaction between the Nazca and South America plates has a high tsunamigenic potential. Historically, chilean coastal cities has been affected by the strongest earthquakes and tsunamis recorded in the world. The location of the mega-thrust close to the land...

On April 1st2014 a 8.1 Mw Earthquake occurred at 23:46:50 UTC (20:46:50 local time) with its epicenter located off the coast of Pisagua, 68 km north of the city of Iquique (An et al., 2014). The potential risk of earthquake and tsunami in this area was widely recognized by the scientific community (Chlieh et al., 2004). Nevertheless, the energy rel...

In northern Chile, the Neogene - Quaternary deformation of the Atacama Fault System (AFS) is expressed by faults that cut and displaces Quaternary alluvial fans generated in active mountain fronts. Morphologically, these faults show conspicuous fault scarps and complex fractures zones. In recent years some studies have addressed Quaternary activity...

50 years after the great Alaskan earthquake, the Mw8.2 Pisagua earthquake filled in the center of the northern Chile seismic gap, part of the Nazca-South America plate boundary that had not experienced a great earthquake since 1877. The northern Chile margin bears several similarities to Cascadia: both are concave towards the subducting oceanic pla...

frontera (BEM) aplicado a un medio homogéneo e isotrópico, donde la superficie de frontera sigue la topografía del fondo marino. La comparación entre la formulación válida para superficie plana y los resultados numéricos para una topografía real correspondiente a l norte de Chile muestra que las diferencias son suficientemente importantes como para...

The last three great subduction earthquakes on Earth have demonstrated that slip activity at subduction zones seems to be related in two ways with the upper plate fault activity. The 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule Earthquake and the 2011 Mw 9.1 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake generated aftershocks in the upper plate compatible with the reactivation of normal faults. On t...

Over the past decade, the Isla Santa Maria (south-central Chile) has provided one of the most exquisitely detailed records of deformation and tectonically controlled sea-level change anywhere along the Andean margin ([Bookhagen et al., 2006][1]; [Melnick et al., 2006][2], [2009][3], [2012][4]).

[1] Geologists have long known that young normal faults are an important structural element of the Andean Coastal Cordillera, but their relationship to the subduction seismic cycle is still unclear. Some of the largest aftershocks of the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule earthquake in central Chile were nucleated on upper plate normal faults, including the Mw 6.9...

The Mejillones Peninsula is a geological, geomorphological and structural anomaly along the coastal northern Chile. Previous works have characterized normal faults and their role in the geomorphological evolution of the peninsula. However, there is few information about the submarine expression of these faults on the marine platform. Through acoust...

[1] Geologists have long known that young normal faults are an important structural element of the Andean Coastal Cordillera, but their relationship to the subduction seismic cycle is still unclear. Some of the largest aftershocks of the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule earthquake in central Chile were nucleated on upper plate normal faults, including the Mw 6.9...

The convergence of the Nazca and South American plates along the subduction margin of the central Andes results in large subduction earthquakes and tectonic activity along major fault systems. Despite its relevance, the paleoseismic record of this region is scarce, hampering our understanding about the relationship between the Andes building and ea...

The nature of crustal deformation in active arcs and the feedback mechanisms between tectonics and magma transport constitute fundamental problems in the understanding of volcanic systems. Additionally, for geothermal energy exploration, a better understanding of how crustal architecture and stress field controls fluid ascent and heat transfer from...

The extreme aridity of the northern Chilean Coastal Cordillera enables the complete preservation of permanent deformation related to the coupling between Nazca and South America. The region between Antofagasta and Arica is characterized by four types of Late Cenozoic structures: EW-striking reverse faults; ~NS-striking normal faults; sparse WNW and...

Despite its location in a convergent tectonic setting, the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile between 21°S and 25°S is dominated by structures demonstrating extension in the direction of plate convergence. In some locations, however, normal faults have been reactivated as reverse faults, complicating the interpretation of long-term strain. In ord...

In this contribution we examine the relationship between active compression and construction of Pleistocene volcanoes in the present-day magmatic arc of the central Andes (23°S-24°S). Deformation produced several N-S striking, ˜40 km long subparallel ridges. These ridges formed by folding of Pliocene ignimbrites and upper Pliocene and Pleistocene l...

This work documents fault activity and the Neogene's strain field in northern Chilean Coastal Cordillera. Fault activity is expressed as a group of fault scarps and fault-bend fold scarps whose orientation defines three main domains WNW-ESE, N-S and NNW-SSE. The WNW-ESE and N-S faults show reverse kinematics, and NNW-SSE faults shows dextral-revers...