Dr. Benavente-Bravo, Roberto

The detection of transient events related to slow earthquakes in GNSS positional time series is key to understanding seismogenic processes in subduction zones. Here, we present a novel Principal and Independent Components Correlation Analysis (PICCA) method that allows for the temporal and spatial detection of transient signals. The PICCA is based on an optimal combination of the principal (PCA) and independent component analysis (ICA) of positional time series of a GNSS network. We assume that the transient signal is mostly contained in one of the principal or independent components. To detect the transient, we applied a method where correlations between sliding windows of each PCA/ICA component and each time series are calculated, obtaining the stations affected by the slow slip event and the onset time from the resulting correlation peaks. We first tested and calibrated the method using synthetic signals from slow earthquakes of different magnitudes and durations and modelled their effect in the network of GNSS stations in Chile. Then, we analyzed three transient events related to slow earthquakes recorded in Chile, in the areas of Iquique, Copiapó, and Valparaíso. For synthetic data, a 150 days event was detected using the PCA-based method, while a 3 days event was detected using the ICA-based method. For the real data, a long-term transient was detected by PCA, while a 16 days transient was detected by ICA. It is concluded that simultaneous use of both signal separation methods (PICCA) is more effective when searching for transient events. The PCA method is more useful for long-term events, while the ICA method is better suited to recognize events of short duration. PICCA is a promising tool to detect transients of different characteristics in GNSS time series, which will be used in a next stage to generate a catalog of SSEs in Chile

Since the 1985 M 8.0 central Chile earthquake, national strong‐motion seismic networks have recorded ten megathrust earthquakes with magnitudes greater than M 7.5 at the convergent margin, defined by the contact between the Nazca and South American plates. The analysis of these earthquake records have led to improved hazard analyses and design codes for conventional and seismically protected structures. Although strong‐motion baseline correction is required for a meaningful interpretation of these records, correction methods have not been applied consistently in time. The inconsistencies between correction methods have been neglected in the practical use of these records in practice. Consequently, this work aims to provide a new strong‐motion database for researchers and engineers, which has been processed by traceable and consistent data processing techniques. The record database comes from three uncorrected strong motion Chilean databases. All the records are corrected using a four‐step novel methodology, which detects the P‐wave arrival and introduces a baseline correction based on the reversible‐jump Markov chain Monte Carlo method. The resulting strong motion database has more than 2000 events from 1985 to the date, and it is available to download at the Simulation Based Earthquake Risk and Resilience of Interdependent Systems and Networks (SIBER‐RISK) project website.