Scientific Purpose

MIMOSA is an internationally collaborative effort to image the structures affecting the South American continent from the surface to the lower mantle using a variety of big-data seismic techniques, such as teleseismic tomography, ambient noise tomography, and receiver function analysis. We seek to answer a number of fundamental questions about Andean tectonics using comparable continent-scale seismic images. How do the lithosphere and asthenosphere interact? How do structures change along strike of the Andes? How do small-scale structures affect large-scale processes?