Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
3-D Map Shows Quake Zone Before and After
Topic Started: February 10 2012, 05:39 PM (182 Views)
Mark (IWO)
Member Avatar
Admin

A scarp dramatically offsets the ground along a fresh rupture of the Borrego Fault, Mexico (2010) Credit: Michael Oskin et al., www.keckcaves.org

Posted Image

More in this interesting article

3-D Laser Map Shows Earthquake Zone Before and After

Geologists have a new tool to study how earthquakes change the landscape--down to a few inches. It's giving scientists insights into how earthquake faults behave.

In this week's issue of the journal Science, a team of scientists from the United States, Mexico and China reports the most comprehensive before-and-after picture yet of an earthquake zone, using data from the magnitude 7.2 event that struck near Mexicali, Mexico, in April 2010.

"We can learn so much about how earthquakes work by studying fresh fault ruptures," said Michael Oskin, a geologist at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the paper.

The team, working with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), flew over the area with LiDAR (light detection and ranging), which bounces a stream of laser pulses off the ground.

New airborne LiDAR equipment can measure surface features to within a few inches. The researchers were able to make a detailed scan over about 140 square miles in less than three days, Oskin said.

Oskin said that they knew the area had been mapped with LiDAR in 2006 by the Mexican government.

When the earthquake occurred, Oskin and Ramon Arrowsmith at Arizona State University received rapid-response funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to carry out an immediate aerial survey to compare the results.

Paper co-authors John Fletcher and Orlando Teran from Mexico's Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE) carried out a traditional ground survey of the fault rupture, which helped guide planning of the aerial LiDAR survey and interpretation of the results.

"This study is an excellent demonstration of an emerging tool for Earth science," said Greg Anderson, NSF program director for EarthScope, which funded the research.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123073&org=NSF&from=news
The coldest winter you will ever experience is a summer in West Clare.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Earthquakes/Volcanos · Next Topic »
Add Reply

tm