SONNE SO212

From 22 to 26 December 2010 the German research vessel SONNE is working in the area of the subduction zone off the coast of Chile. In the framework of the TACO (Tectonics and Aftershocks of the M8.8 Chile earthquake monitored by Ocean bottom seismometers) project the scientist onboard R/V SONNE will recover a network of 30 ocean bottom seismometers, that was deployed in late summer 2010 during the SO 209/2 cruise to record aftershocks of the Mw=8.8 Maule earthquake. This offers for the first time the unique chance, to monitor the seismogenic zone BEFORE and AFTER a disastrous earthquake, since the proponents had operated a seismological network there for six months in 2008 in exactly the location, which ruptured during the 27 February 2010 event. The comparison of the seismicity recorded in both networks will provide invaluable new information regarding the seismological cycle and the coupling between the two plates. This will then allow to better characterize the potential hazard of seismogenic zones. Chief scientist during this expedition is Prof Ernst Flüh of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences IFM-GEOMAR.