How the earth moved in the L'Aquila earthquake

The Berkeley Seismo blog: The European satellite "Envisat," which carries a "Side Aperture Radar" sensor, flew over the Abruzzo region of Central Italy on February 1, 2009 and then again six weeks later on April 12. In the mean time, a devastating earthquake occurred near the town of L'Aquila, killing more than 260 people.

Using interferometry--subtracting one picture from the other--Italian scientists overlaid the two radar pictures of the region to produce a map of colored waves.

Each colored ring is a measure of how much the ground has moved as a result of the earthquake.

The large green square represents the location of the main shock; the smaller green squares show large aftershocks. Along the yellow line east of L’Aquila geologists found an alignment of surface breaks after the quake, which indicate the orientation of the rupture. The colored wave pattern follows those breaks exactly, indicating that the ground had moved a few inches down to the left side of the yellow line. This movement is also represented by the black and white fault plane solution on the left.

Related News Picks
Gran Sasso laboratory undamaged in L'Aquila earthquake
2009 L'Aquila Earthquake

Related Links
ESA dataset package
Another Kind of Earthquake Wave