The New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ) in the central United States is one of the most active regions of intraplate seismicity in North America and site of the devastating 1811–1812 earthquake sequence (Nuttli, 1973; Johnston and Schweig, 1996). The NMSZ lies within the NE–SW trending Reelfoot rift (Fig. 1), which represents a failed rift arm that developed during the Late Proterozoic and Early Cam...

The Taltal area, which lies within the coastal cordillera of northern Chile, is dominated by a group of major active faults that cut a eugeosynclinal section of predominantly Jurassic andesites overlying Paleozoic metamorphic and plutonlc rocks and intruded by Late Mesozoic plutons. The Atacama fault, a suggested regional strike-sllp fracture parallel to the coastline, has been obliquely cut an...