Observation of a Synchronicity between Shallow and Deep Seismic Activities during the Foreshock Crisis Preceding the Iquique Megathrust Earthquake

Abstract

We analyze at a broad spatial scale the slab seismicity during one of the longest and best recorded foreshock sequence of a subduction earthquake to date: the M8.1 2014 Iquique earthquake in Chile.  We observe the synchronisation of this sequence with seismic events occurring in the deep slab (depth ~100km). This synchronisation supports the existence of long-range seismic bursts already observed in the Japan Trench subduction. It suggests that, like for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the deep slab was involved in the nucleation process of the Iquique earthquake.  We interpret these observations by the presence of pressure pulses propagating in transient fluid channels linking the deep slab where dehydration occurs to the shallow seismogenic zone before the earthquake. These observations may seem surprising but they are in line with the short-lived pulse-like channelized water escape from the dehydration zone predicted by recent studies in slab mineralogy and geochemistry.