www.fallasdechile.cl, the First Online Repository for Neotectonic Faults in the Chilean Andes

Felipe Aron, Valeria Salas, Constanza Bugueño, César Hernández, Luis Leiva, Isabel Santibáñez, & José Cembrano

Published August 15, 2016, SCEC Contribution #6992, 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #325

We introduce the site www.fallasdechile.cl, created and maintained by undergraduate students and researchers at the Catholic University of Chile. Though the web page seeks to inform and educate the general public about potentially seismogenic faults of the country, layers of increasing content complexity allow students, researchers and educators to consult the site as a scientific tool as well. This is the first comprehensive, open access database on Chilean geologic faults; we envision that it may grow organically with contributions from peer scientists, resembling the SCEC community fault model for southern California. Our website aims at filling a gap between science and society providing users the opportunity to get involved by self-driven learning through interactive education modules.

The main page highlights recent developments and open questions in Chilean earthquake science. Front pages show first level information of general concepts in earthquake topics such as tectonic settings, definition of geologic faults, and space-time constraints of faults. Users can navigate interactive modules to explore, with real data, different earthquake scenarios and compute values of seismic moment and magnitude. A second level covers Chilean/Andean faults classified according to their geographic location containing at least one of the following parameters: mapped trace, 3D geometry, sense of slip, recurrence times and date of last event. Fault traces are displayed on an interactive map using a Google Maps API. The material is compiled and curated in an effort to present, up to our knowledge, accurate and up to date information. If interested, the user can navigate to a third layer containing more advanced technical details including primary sources of the data, a brief structural description, published scientific articles, and links to other online content complementing our site. Also, geographically referenced fault traces with attributes (kml, shapefiles) and fault 3D surfaces (contours, tsurf files) will be available to download.

Given its potential for becoming a referential database for active faults in Chile, this project evidences that undergrads can go beyond the classroom, be of service to the scientific community, and make contributions with broader impacts.

Citation
Aron, F., Salas, V., Bugueño, C., Hernández, C., Leiva, L., Santibáñez, I., & Cembrano, J. (2016, 08). www.fallasdechile.cl, the First Online Repository for Neotectonic Faults in the Chilean Andes. Poster Presentation at 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Communication, Education, and Outreach (CEO)