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Science 16 January 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5349, pp. 358 - 362
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5349.358
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Reports

Space Geodetic Observations of Nazca-South America Convergence Across the Central Andes

Edmundo Norabuena, Lisa Leffler-Griffin, Ailin Mao, Timothy Dixon, Seth Stein, * I. Selwyn Sacks, Leonidas Ocola, Michael Ellis

Space geodetic data recorded rates and directions of motion across the convergent boundary zone between the oceanic Nazca and continental South American plates in Peru and Bolivia. Roughly half of the overall convergence, about 30 to 40 millimeters per year, accumulated on the locked plate interface and can be released in future earthquakes. About 10 to 15 millimeters per year of crustal shortening occurred inland at the sub-Andean foreland fold and thrust belt, indicating that the Andes are continuing to build. Little (5 to 10 millimeters per year) along-trench motion of coastal forearc slivers was observed, despite the oblique convergence.

E. Norabuena, Instituto Geofisico del Peru, Apartado 3747, Lima 100, Peru, and Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA.
L. Leffler-Griffin and S. Stein, Department of Geological Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
A. Mao and T. Dixon, Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA.
I. S. Sacks, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institute of Washington, 5241 Broad Branch Road, NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
L. Ocola, Instituto Geofisico del Peru, Apartado 3747, Lima 100, Peru.
M. Ellis, Center for Earthquake Research and Information, University of Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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