Seismicity and average velocities beneath the Argentine Puna plateau

Abstract

A network of 60 seismographs was deployed across the Andes at ~23.5°S. The array was centered in the backarc, atop the Puna high plateau in NW Argentina. P and S arrival times of 426 intermediate depth earthquakes were inverted for 1-D velocity structure and hypocentral coordinates. Average velocities and v(p)/v(s) in the crust are low Average mantle velocities are high but difficult to interpret because of the presence of a fast velocity slab at depth. Although the hypocenters sharply define a 35°dipping Benioff zone, seismicity in the slab is not continuous. The spatial clustering of earthquakes is thought to reflect inherited heterogeneties of the subducted oceanic lithosphere. Additionally, 57 crustal earthquakes were located. Seismicity concentrates in the fold and thrust belt of the foreland and Eastern Cordillera, and along and south of the El Toro-Olacapato-Calama Lineament (TOCL). Focal mechanisms of two earthquakes at this structure exhibit left lateral strike-slip mechanisms similar to the suggested kinematics of the TOCL. We believe that the Puna north of the TOCL behaves like a rigid block with little internal deformation, whereas the area south of the TOCL is weaker and currently deforming.