This award supports cooperative research in seismology to be conducted by Jer-Ming Chiu and others at Memphis State University collaborating with Beatriz Coira and Jose Viramonte of the Universities of Jujuy and Salta, respectively, in Argentina. Seismologists and geologists from the U.S. and Argentina will conduct a detailed seismotectonic study of the central Andes. They will use high resolution seismic data obtained from the new seismic array experiment in San Juan and the ongoing experiment in the Jujuy region to: (1) incoporate knowledge of surface faults into the design of the network in Jujuy, (2) compare analysis of the San Juan and Jujuy data and (3) integrate new seismic data with geologic information to make tectonic interpretations. This cooperation between U.S. seismologists and Argentine geologists will provide new information about seismic activity and crustal and lithospheric structure. The addition of geological, geochemical, geomorphological and volcanological information from the co-investigators at Jujuy and Salta will permit a detailed correlation of shallow crustal seismicity with known surface faults making tectonic interpretation possible. This type of cooperative study is essential to obtain new insights into regions of active crustal compression.
