The Iquique Local Network and PicArray

The Iquique Local Network (ILN), a temporal network of broadband and short period seismic stations has been operating in Northern Chile since 2009. The aim of this installation was to locally densify the permanent seismic installation of the Integrated Plate Boundary Observatory in Chile (IPOC), with the main goal to decrease the magnitude of detected earthquake, to improve the hypocentral location accuracy, to allow a more accurate investigation of seismic source parameters, and to analyse proposed seismogenic structures of the Northern Chile seismic gap. The network setup evolved with time, with different geometries at different installation phases, aiming to study different seismicity features. In the first phase, started in 2009 and operational since 2010 until autumn 2013, the network had a sparse configuration, targeting a broad region extending from 19.5° S in the North to approximately 21.3° S South of Iquique. In the following stage, operational until fall 2017, most broadband stations were rearranged into a small aperture seismic array (PicArray) close to the village of Pica, to monitor with array techniques the shallow seismicity at the plate interfacer, intermediate and deep focus seismicity. Waveform data are available from the GEOFON data centre, under network code IQ, and arefully open.