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EOS, TRANSACTIONS AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION, VOL. 89, NO. 37, doi:10.1029/2008EO370002, 2008

Ground Deformation Imagery of the May Sichuan Earthquake

Salvatore Stramondo

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy


Marco Chini

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy


Stefano Salvi

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy


Christian Bignami

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy


Simona Zoffoli

Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Rome, Italy


Enzo Boschi

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy


Abstract

The magnitude Mw = 7.8 earthquake that struck China's Sichuan region on 12 May 2008 (Figure 1a) has been imaged by the Italian Space Agency's (ASI) Constellation of Small Satellites for the Mediterranean Basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed radar Earth observation satellites. Five images were available—two preseismic spotlight mode images and three strip-map mode images, two of which are preseismic and one of which is postseismic. We used two strip-map images (acquired 1 month prior to and 3 days after the earthquake) to generate the first ever X-band (i.e., microwave frequency domain, corresponding to about 3-centimeter wavelength) coseismic interferogram, which clearly shows part of the strong ground deformation caused by the fault dislocation. We also performed a change detection analysis of the same data that highlighted several changes in the radar response, presumably due to strong seismic damage, as far as 80 kilometers away from the epicenter.

Published 9 September 2008.

Index Terms: 1209 Geodesy and Gravity: Tectonic deformation (6924); 0933 Exploration Geophysics: Remote sensing; 7212 Seismology: Earthquake ground motions and engineering seismology.

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Citation: Stramondo, S., M. Chini, S. Salvi, C. Bignami, S. Zoffoli, and E. Boschi (2008), Ground Deformation Imagery of the May Sichuan Earthquake, Eos Trans. AGU, 89(37), doi:10.1029/2008EO370002.