title: Gradual unlocking of plate boundary controlled initiation of the 2014 Iquique earthquake.
abstract: On 1 April 2014, Northern Chile was struck by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake following a protracted series of foreshocks. The Integrated Plate Boundary Observatory Chile monitored the entire sequence of events, providing unprecedented resolution of the build-up to the main event and its rupture evolution. Here we show that the Iquique earthquake broke a central fraction of the so-called northern Chile seismic gap, the last major segment of the South American plate boundary that had not ruptured in the past century. Since July 2013 three seismic clusters, each lasting a few weeks, hit this part of the plate boundary with earthquakes of increasing peak magnitudes. Starting with the second cluster, geodetic observations show surface displacements that can be associated with slip on the plate interface. These seismic clusters and their slip transients occupied a part of the plate interface that was transitional between a fully locked and a creeping portion. Leading up to this earthquake, the b value of the foreshocks gradually decreased during the years before the earthquake, reversing its trend a few days before the Iquique earthquake. The mainshock finally nucleated at the northern end of the foreshock area, which skirted a locked patch, and ruptured mainly downdip towards higher locking. Peak slip was attained immediately downdip of the foreshock region and at the margin of the locked patch. We conclude that gradual weakening of the central part of the seismic gap accentuated by the foreshock activity in a zone of intermediate seismic coupling was instrumental in causing final failure, distinguishing the Iquique earthquake from most great earthquakes. Finally, only one-third of the gap was broken and the remaining locked segments now pose a significant, increased seismic hazard with the potential to host an earthquake with a magnitude of >8.5.
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schurr
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Günter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Asch
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hainzl
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bedford
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoechner
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Palo
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Rongjiang
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Mitja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bartsch
authors.affiliation: School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Onno
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Oncken
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Frederik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tilmann
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dahm
authors.affiliation: GFZ Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Victor
authors.affiliation: Centro Sismológico National, Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Blanco Encalada 2002, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barrientos
authors.affiliation: Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 1, rue Jussieu, 75238 Paris cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Vilotte