The ChilePEPPER experiment will utilize the seismometer and flow meter data to explore the slip behavior of the seafloor in this subduction zone. Click image to go to interactive station map.
(Taken from the NSF Abstract Award #1130013): Among the hazards that arise from large earthquakes are the direct effects of great earthquakes, as evidenced by last year's devastating earthquake off Japan, and local and distant effects of tsunamis. Though they pose enormous risks to life and property in highly populated areas, neither of these phenomena is as yet well understood. The recent great earthquake in Chile did not generate a large tsunami, probably because the rupture produce a surface break at the seafloor. Available evidence suggests that slip did not occur at depths shallower than about 30 km down-dip from the trench. Accordingly, the proponents of this project infer that the outer accretionary wedge that lies along the Chile coast above the rupture zone behaves as a poro-elastic medium that will adjust over time to the new stress regime caused by the earthquake. The aim of the proposal is to observe the effects of this transient adjustment, by deploying a focused array of ocean bottom seismographs equipped with flow meters. The principal broader impact of this effort is considerably improved understanding of megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis.
ChilePEPPER 2012 Cruise Report - LDEO deployment
ChilePEPPER 2013 Cruise Report - LDEO recovery
Deploying an OBS from the R/V Melville
10 Broadband OBSs with integrated flow meters are deployed from the R/V Melville in the zone of greatest slip during the February 27 2010 Maule earthquake.
Seismometers recovered.
Data from all OBSIP instruments deployed will be archived under temporary network code Z4 at the IRIS DMC. Data will be restricted for two years following the experiment, per NSF policy.