Browsing by Author "Melnick, Daniel"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Calibrating coseismic coastal land-level changes during the 2014 Iquique (Mw=8.2) earthquake (northern Chile) with leveling, GPS and intertidal biota
    (2017) Jaramillo, Eduardo; Melnick, Daniel; Baez, Juan Carlos; Montecino, Henry; Lagos Suárez, Nelson A.; Acuña, Emilio; Manzano, Mario; Camus Contreras, Patricio A.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Decadal coastal evolution spanning the 2010 Maule earthquake at Isla Santa Maria, Chile: Framing Darwin's accounts of uplift over a seismic cycle
    (2023) Aedo, Diego; Cisternas, Marco; Melnick, Daniel; Esparza, Cesar; Winckler, Patricio; Saldana, Bladimir
    Charles Darwin and Robert FitzRoy documented coseismic coastal uplift associated with the great 1835 Chile earthquake (M > 8.5) at Isla Santa Maria. In 2010, another similar earthquake (Mw 8.8) uplifted the island, ending the seismic cycle. The 2-m uplift in 2010 caused major geomorphic and sedimentologic changes to the island's sandy beaches. Understanding the processes governing these changes requires pre- and post-earthquake measurements to differentiate the effects of abrupt coseismic uplift from seasonal, annual, and decadal-scale signals. Here, we combine spatial analysis of aerial imagery, field geophysics, wind and wave models to quantify geomorphic changes between 1941 and 2021 along the main beach. During the late interseismic phase (1941-2010), a ridge-runnel system was formed and then buried by a frontal dune. Because of uplift in 2010, the shoreline prograded similar to 20 m, the uplifted berm was abandoned, and a new seaward berm was built. In the following decade, the abandoned berm was eroded by widening of the backshore as the shoreline and dune advanced seaward. Over the surveyed eight decades, the shoreline prograded continuously, increasing from <1 m/year to up to 3-5 m/year after the earthquake. We infer that these changes were caused by a sedimentary disequilibrium driven by variations in relative sea level, moving formerly passive sands from eroding cliffs and marine depths into the coastal sedimentary system, thus promoting long and cross-shore sediment transport and, utterly, accretion. Our results have implications for studying beach evolution along tectonically-active coasts associated with drastic changes in relative sea level.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    LiDAR and GPR Data Reveal The Holocene Evolution of a Strandplain in a Tectonically Active Coast
    (2025) Martínez Reyes, Carolina Del Pilar; Araya Cornejo, Cristian Iván; Aedo, Diego; Melnick, Daniel
    This study investigates the Holocene evolution of the Laraquete-Carampangue strandplain (LCS) on the tectonically active coast of south-central Chile using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and LiDAR data. Laraquete-Carampangue strandplain (LCS), on the tectonically active coast of south-central Chile, is a rare accretionary feature in a region dominated by rocky shorelines and limited sediment supply. LiDAR-derived digital elevation model reveals a complex geomorphology comprising 52 beach ridges, aeolian dunes, and fluvial paleochannels, while GPR radargrams uncover marine and aeolian facies influenced by past seismic and climatic events. We interpret these units in the frame of past seismic and climatic events. Our geomorphological and stratigraphic findings suggest that the strandplain progradation was driven by relative sea-level changes associated with past seismic cycles and Holocene climate change. We propose that the transition from drier to humid conditions in the late Holocene triggered the onset of dune formation at the end of the Little Ice Age. This integrated approach highlights the interplay of tectonic and climatic forcings in shaping coastal landforms, offering insights into their long-term response to environmental change.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Relation Between Oceanic Plate Structure, Patterns of Interplate Locking and Microseismicity in the 1922 Atacama Seismic Gap
    (2023) Gonzalez-Vidal, Diego; Moreno, Marcos; Sippl, Christian; Baez, Juan Carlos; Ortega-Culaciati, Francisco; Lange, Dietrich; Tilmann, Frederik; Socquet, Anne; Bolte, Jan; Hormazabal, Joaquin; Langlais, Mickael; Morales-Yanez, Catalina; Melnick, Daniel; Benavente, Roberto; Muenchmeyer, Jannes; Araya, Rodolfo; Heit, Benjamin
    We deployed a dense geodetic and seismological network in the Atacama seismic gap in Chile. We derive a microseismicity catalog of >30,000 events, time series from 70 GNSS stations, and utilize a transdimensional Bayesian inversion to estimate interplate locking. We identify two highly locked regions of different sizes whose geometries appear to control seismicity patterns. Interface seismicity concentrates beneath the coastline, just downdip of the highest locking. A region with lower locking (27.5 & DEG;S-27.7 & DEG;S) coincides with higher seismicity levels, a high number of repeating earthquakes and events extending toward the trench. This area is situated where the Copiapo Ridge is subducted and has shown previous indications of both seismic and aseismic slip, including an earthquake sequence in 2020. While these findings suggest that the structure of the downgoing oceanic plate prescribes patterns of interplate locking and seismicity, we note that the Taltal Ridge further north lacks a similar signature.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    River-damming landslides during the 1960 Chile earthquake (M9.5) and earlier events: implications for risk assessment in the San Pedro River basin
    (2024) Araya-Cornejo, Cristian; Carvajal, Matias; Melnick, Daniel; Moernaut, Jasper; Araya, Cesar; Gonzalez, Felipe
    Damming rivers by landslides and ensuing outburst flooding is a common and potentially hazardous phenomenon worldwide, especially in tectonically active regions. Remarkable examples are the damming of the upper course of the San Pedro River (SPR) in south Chile during the 1960 Chile earthquake (M9.5) and its predecessor in 1575. Outburst floods following both events had tragic consequences for downstream communities. Here, we study both events from multiple sources of information, including previously published and newly found historical records, satellite imagery, LiDAR topography, and sedimentological and geomorphological field observations. We present the first detailed geomorphic map of the region. Morphological similarities between ancient deposits at the SPR and those associated with the 1960 earthquake suggest that the SPR has been dammed repeatedly in the past. The steep incision of the SPR and the sediments of glacio-lacustrine origin in the surrounding slopes facilitate the initiation of large landslides. The knowledge gained from studying these past events provides important implications for future risk assessments. We propose that besides large earthquakes, smaller and more frequent earthquakes as well as changes in land use, can also result in river-damming events.