Application of ENVISAT ScanSAR interferometry to long-range fault creep: a case study of the Xianshuihe fault in the eastern Tibetan margin area

Abstract

The Xianshuihe fault of Sichuan province, southwest China, is a highly active strike-slip fault approximately 350 km long. Previous studies have described left-lateral slip of up to 10–17 mm/year on the Xianshuihe fault during recent decades, as indicated by geological criteria and GPS observations. Satellite InSAR observations provide an alternative effective technique used to measure the crustal deformation on the active fault. In this article, we present ScanSAR interferometry applied to ENVISAT WSM ASAR data to produce a deformation map of about 400 × 400 km over the Xianshuihe fault zone and the Garzê-Yushu fault zone. The preliminary stacked deformation results of six WS–WS interferograms indicated a northeast–southwest deformation trend nearly perpendicular to the two fault zones and demonstrated the potential to monitor such wide-ranging deformation using ENVISAT WSS data.