Seismic strain rates and distributed continental deformation in the northern Andes and three-dimensional seismotectonics of northwestern South America

The seismic strain rates and configuration in the northern Andes are estimated by summing the components of the Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) solutions for earthquakes with Mw>5.0 and are compared with those predicted by various models of relative plate motions and GPS data. Moment tensor components are summed linearly in four different regions with similar seismotectonics to infer changes in the regional strain patterns along the northern Andes...