Title: Earthquakes recorded in the landscape: Using digital topography to investigate earthquake faulting
1Earthquakes recorded in the landscape Using
digital topography to investigate earthquake
faulting
- Christopher Crosby
- GEON / Arizona State University
- SDSC TeacherTech Seminar
- Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 430pm- 630pm
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3Outline
- Introduction to earthquakes, plate tectonic
deformation and the San Andreas fault - Exercise GPS observations of deformation around
the San Andreas - Introduction to digital topography, earthquake
faulting and long and short-term fault
deformation - Exercise Google Earth and digital topography to
document offset features and investigate
earthquake behavior
4Introduction I
- Goal Develop a basic understanding of plate
tectonics-driven deformation. - Questions
- What tools do researchers use to study tectonic
motion? - How is plate tectonic motion distributed across
California where do you expect to have EQs? - Do our observations of plate tectonics agree with
where we see earthquakes?
5San Andreas Fault
- Right-lateral strike slip fault
- Pacific plate moving northwest relative to North
America at about 50 mm/yr
6Plate boundary deformation
- Is all 50 mm/yr of Pacific/North American plate
motion on the SAF? - If not, how is this deformation distributed?
- Can use GPS to answer this question
7GPS Network
- Dense network of GPS stations gives us real time
information about how the crust of the earth is
deforming.
8Exercise 1 pdf
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10- Reverse (or Thrust) faults are found where the
crust is in compression. - GPS velocity transect parallel to the SAF shows a
decline in plate motion to the northhow is the
greater deformation rate to the south
accommodated?
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14Introduction II
- Goal Illustrate the linkage between plate
tectonics and evidence for earthquakes in the
landscape. - How can high-resolution topography help us study
earthquakes? - What do fault related landforms tell us about
long-term fault activity? What do the landforms
tell us about short-term fault activity? - Introduction to the concepts of slip rate, slip
per event, recurrence and characteristic EQs
151906 earthquake surface rupture. 8 fence offset
above http//mnw.eas.slu.edu/Earthquake_Center/19
06EQ/1906thumb.html And http//quake.wr.usgs.gov/i
nfo/1906/images/fenceoffset_big.html
16Reids elastic rebound hypothesis Can treat
streams that cross the fault the same way as this
fence
http//quake.wr.usgs.gov/info/1906/reid.html
17- Some terminology
- Slip rate Average rate of motion on the fault
(mm/yr) - Slip per event amount of displacement in a
single EQ - Recurrence How often does an earthquake occur?
- Characteristic EQ Are all EQs on a fault the
same size?
18- Landforms like this one can yield significant
information about EQ behavior
19- Wallace Creek development.
- Sieh and Wallace, 1987
20LiDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) a.k.a ALSM
(Airborne Laser Swath Mapping)
- Airborne pulsed laser scanning system
differential GPS inertial measurement unit
(IMU) - gt 30,000 points/second
- Ground sampled multiple points/sq. meter
- 15 cm vertical accuracy
- 300 - 500 per sq. km acquisition cost
http//coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/mappingchang
e/
21LiDAR point cloud
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23Exercise 2 pdfhttp//lidar.asu.edu/TeacherTech0
8.html