Description: The excellent spatial coverage of continuous GPS stations in the region affected by the Maule Mw = 8.8 2010 earthquake, combined with the proximity of the coast to the seismogenic zone, allows us to model megathrust afterslip on the plate interface with unprecedented detail. We invert post-seismic observations from continuous GPS sites to derive a time-variable model of the first 420 d of afterslip. We also invert co-seismic GPS displacements to create a new co-seismic slip model. The afterslip pattern appears to be transient and non-stationary, with the cumulative afterslip pattern being formed from afterslip pulses. Changes in static stress on the plate interface from the co- and post-seismic slip cannot solely explain the aftershock patterns, suggesting that another process – perhaps fluid related – is controlling the lower magnitude aftershocks. We use aftershock data to quantify the seismic coupling distribution during the post-seismic phase. Comparison of the post-seismic behaviour to interseismic locking suggests that highly locked regions do not necessarily behave as rate-weakening in the post-seismic period. By comparing the inter-seismic locking, co-seismic slip, afterslip, and aftershocks we attempt to classify the heterogeneous frictional behaviour of the plate interface.

Description: As the archetype of mountain building in subduction zones, the Central Andes has constituted an excellent example for investigating mountain-building processes for decades, but the mechanism by which orogenic growth occurs remains debated. In this study we investigate the Southern Central Andes, between 22° and 35°S, by examining the along-strike variations in Cenozoic uplift history (〈45 Ma) and the amount of tectonic shortening-thickening, allowing us to construct seven continental-scale cross-sections that are constrained by a new thermomechanical model. Our goal is to reconcile the kinematic model explaining crustal shortening-thickening and deformation with the geological constraints of this subduction-related orogen. To achieve this goal a representation of the thermomechanical structure of the orogen is constructed, and the results are applied to constrain the main decollement active for the last 15 Myr. Afterwards, the structural evolution of each transect is kinematically reconstructed through forward modeling, and the proposed deformation evolution is analyzed from a geodynamic perspective through the development of a numerical 2D geodynamic model of upper-plate lithospheric shortening. In this model, low-strength zones at upper-mid crustal levels are proposed to act both as large decollements that are sequentially activated toward the foreland and as regions that concentrate most of the orogenic deformation. As the orogen evolves, crustal thickening and heating lead to the vanishing of the sharp contrast between low- and high-strength layers. Therefore, a new decollement develops towards the foreland, concentrating crustal shortening, uplift and exhumation and, in most cases, focusing shallow crustal seismicity. The north-south decrease in shortening, from 325 km at 22°S to 46 km at 35°S, and the cumulated orogenic crustal thicknesses and width are both explained by transitional stages of crustal thickening: from pre-wedge, to wedge, to paired-wedge and, finally, to plateau stages.