Paleomagnetic Study of the Post-Cretaceous Displacement History of the Liquine-Ofqui Fault, Southern Chile

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This award supports cooperative research in paleontology to be conducted by Myrl Beck and others at Western Washington University and several Chilean geologists led by Francisco Herve of the University of Chile. Together they will carry out a study of the Liquine-Ofqui fault (LOF) which is a topographically prominent linear feature that extends more than 800 km through the fjords of southern Chile and into the active volcanic arc east of the Lake District. It is thus only slightly shorter than the San Andreas fault system of California. Unlike the San Andreas, however, the tectonic significance of the LOF is unknown. The investigators have located two large exposures of Cretaceous volcanic rocks on either side of the fault, and have obtained test samples that have favorable magnetic behavior. This proposal is for funding to do the paleomagnetic part of a multidisciplinary study of the LOF; other aspects of the research (geochemistry, geochronology, field mapping) are being funded by a grant from the Chilean government. Because two U.S. sceintists and six Chileans including two graduate students at W.W.U. are invloved, this is a good example of collaboration. Also, because of the education and training aspects of the work, it satisfies very well the goals of the Science in Developing Countries program.