The role of interplate locking on the seismic reactivation of upper plate faults on the subduction margin of northern Chile.

Quaternary deformation in the northern Chile forearc is controlled by trench parallel shortening along reactivated Mesozoic faults. Dextral strikes-slip is expressed in NW-SE striking faults of the Atacama Fault System, and reverse displacement dominates in E-W faults. This deformation results of the convergence in a concave-seaward continental margin.