Iranian Journal of Geophysics

Iranian Journal of Geophysics

Interseismic deformation study using InSAR time series resolution in the Shahdad area, Kerman (the precursors for the 1396 Hojedk earthquake triplet)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Leila Mahshadnia 1
Seyed Ahmad Alavi 2
Mohammad Reza Ghassemi 3
Zahra Mousavi 4
1 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sedimentary Basins, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Sedimentary Basins, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
3 Professor, Research Institute for Earth Sciences, Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran, Tehran, Iran
4 Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Science, Zanjan, Iran
10.30499/ijg.2024.452404.1592
Abstract
The rate of strain accumulation on a fault may be directly related to the rate of occurrence of earthquakes.Therefore, the geodesic observations of crustal strain in the interseismic stage and identification of preseismic instabilities, in addition to being effective in more accurate evaluation of fault slip rates, also have an important contribution to seismic risk assessment. The deformation of the surface and its temporal evolution in the active Shahdad fault convergence zone was Estimated using ESA's Sentinel-1 radar satellite and using large sets of C-band data 38 months before and 55 months after the main earthquakes of December 2017, Hojedk Kerman, in the 8 years from 2014 to 2022.
   Interferogram stacks were made with ISCE2 software. The obtained results were used to create InSAR time series using the MintPy software package. The corrected phase time series were extracted for deformation study, and linear and 3rd degree polynomial time model were used to produce velocity and acceleration maps in three ascending and descending tracks. The average velocity maps confirmed the presence of non-linear and unstable pre-seismic and post-seismic deformations in addition to stable displacements in the epicenter of earthquakes. These studies led to the identification of areas with short and long wavelength anomalies, evidence of seismic precursor signals, and their measurement. The results in descending tracks showed that More than 20 mmof subsidence in the direction of LOS  occurred in the alluvial basins north of the Lakar Kuh fault three years before the main earthquakes.
   The same basins, during the post-seismic phase, showed an uplift of up to 70 mm during approximately 40 months. The results of time series processing showed that multiple subsidence and inflation phases occurred in different time-spatial intervals in the epicentral region. Part of the observed gradual subsidence was observed on a longtime scale before the occurrence of earthquakes, followed by a period of swelling and uplift, on which more unstable fluctuations of LOS deformation are superimposed. This slow subsidence is probably related to surface fractures, drainage of underground water due to the opening of fractures, and consolidation in the surrounding areas of the epicenter before the earthquake. These observations show the necessity of solving InSAR time series in seismic zones to find temporal and spatial patterns of surface deformation in interaction with the mechanism and magnitude of earthquakes. These changes can be effectively used for modeling and calibrating
pre-seismic deformation. Based on the study of time functions in InSAR series and separation of temporal-spatial ranges with acceleration change in the amount of displacement, as well as determining the parts affected by subsidence and swelling, it is possible to distinguish the pre-seismic from the interseismic phase  in the seismic cycles. These studies can be useful for identifying the epicenter and the mechanism of future earthquakes.
Keywords
InSAR time series
earthquake precursor
intersiesmic instability
subsidence
inflation

Subjects

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Iranian Journal of Geophysics
Volume 19, Issue 1
March and April 2025
Pages 95-114