A Remote Sensing and GIS Analysis of Rockfall Distributions from the 5 July 2019 Ridgecrest (MW7.1) and 24 June 2020 Owens Lake (MW5.8) Earthquakes

Abstract

We examine the coseismic influence of the 5 July 2019, MW7.1 Ridgecrest and the 24 June 2020 MW5.8 Owens Lake earthquakes on rockfall distributions in two undisturbed high-altitude areas of the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA. These events occurred within the geologically recent (<2 Mya) Walker Lane/eastern California shear zone. While both study areas are characterized as plutonic, the Owens Lake event largely affected terrain that was formerly glaciated and oversteepened while the Ridgecrest event affected non-glaciated terrain. Our inventory of rockfall locations was derived from analysis of Sentinel-2 images acquired just prior to and immediately after the events. This difference mapping approach using readily-available Sentinel-2 imagery allows for rapid rockfall and landslide mapping. GIS analysis shows that even though the total area assessed for both earthquakes was similar (~1500 km2), the significantly lower magnitude Owens Lake event produced nearly twice as many (102) mappable rockslides as the significantly stronger Ridgecrest event (58), a difference likely due to slope oversteepening in the formerly glaciated area. Significant seismic amplification by topography and reactivation of preexisting failures was apparent for both areas. Inclusion of these factors may improve failure predictions and rockfall probability estimation.