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3-D coseismic displacement field of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake inferred from satellite radar imagery

Earth, Planets and Space volume 59, pages 343–349 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

We use radar amplitude images acquired by the ENVISAT/ASAR sensor to measure the coseismic deformation of the 8 October 2005 Kashmir earthquake. We use the offset images to constrain the fault trace, which is in good agreement with field investigations and aftershock distribution. We infer a complete 3-D surface displacement field of the Kashmir earthquake using the offset measurements derived from both descending and ascending pairs of SAR images. The peak-to-peak offsets are up to (3.9, 3.6, 4.1) m in the east, north, and up directions respectively, i.e., 2.9 and 4.1 m along and across the fault assuming striking 325?. We model the coseismic displacements using a four-segment dislocation model in a homogeneous elastic half-space. We first estimate the source parameters using a uniform slip model. Then we fix the optimal geometric parameters and solve for the slip distribution using a bounded variable least-squares (BVLS) method. The resultant maximum slip is about 9.0 m at depth of 4–8 km beneath Muzaffarabad. We find a scalar moment of 2.34 × 1020 N m (Mw7.55), of which almost 82% is released in the uppermost 10 km.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Hua Wang & Caijun Xu

  2. School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW, 2052, Australia

    Linlin Ge

  3. Geoinformation Science & Engineering College, Shandong University of Science and Technology, China

    Zhixing Du

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  1. Hua Wang
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  2. Linlin Ge
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  3. Caijun Xu
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  4. Zhixing Du
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Correspondence to Hua Wang.

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Wang, H., Ge, L., Xu, C. et al. 3-D coseismic displacement field of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake inferred from satellite radar imagery. Earth Planet Sp 59, 343–349 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352694

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352694

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