The geometry of the Wadati-Benioff zone under southern Central America and its tectonic significance: results from a high-resolution local seismographic network

Abstract

Abstract We present here a detailed geometry of the Wadati-Benioff zone under Costa Rica, obtained from seismicity recorded by a dense local seismographic network jointly operated by the Costa Rica Volcanological and Seismological Observatory, National University, and the Charles F. Richter Seismological Laboratory, University of California, Santa Cruz. Underneath the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border the Wadati-Benioff zone smoothly contorts (from steep to shallow dip angles, NW to SE), but does not show evidence of a brittle tear, as postulated by others. However, further to the SE, NE of Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica, the Wadati-Benioff zone does show a segmentation (the Quesada Sharp Contortion) at intermediate depths ( h > 70km). NW of this sharp contortion the deepest portion of the seismically active slab dips at about 80° and reaches maximum depths ranging from 200 km, near the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border, to 135 km under Ciudad Quesada. To the SE the deeper portion of the Wadati-Benioff zone dips at about 60° and the seismicity does not extend below depths ranging from 125 km, behind the volcanic arc, to 50 km, east of Quepos. In southern Costa Rica, east of 83°55′W, we find no evidence of the Wadati-Benioff zone deeper than 50 km. The obtained geometry and other known tectonic features related to the subduction of the Cocos plate under the Caribbean plate along the southern terminus of the Middle America Trench (Nicaragua and Costa Rica) correlate well with along-trench variations in age of the subducted Cocos plate. Some of these tectonic features are: (1) the shallowing of Middle America Trench bathymetry from NW to SE; (2) variations in the energy release within the subducted slab; (3) differences in coupling between Cocos and Caribbean plates; (4) the termination of the Central America Volcanic Chain in central Costa Rica; (5) distinct stress field variations on the overriding Caribbean plate. The subduction of the Cocos Ridge under southern Costa Rica is partially responsible for some of these features (shallowing of the Middle America Trench in southern Costa Rica) and for the high uplift rates of the outer arc. However, as the presence of the Panama Fracture Zone limits the subducted extension of the Cocos Ridge to less than 100 km from the trench, we propose that the overall geometry of the Wadati-Benioff zone is controlled by abrupt along-trench changes in the age of the subducted Cocos plate.