InSAR-DEM analyses integrated with geologic field methods for the study of long-term seismogenic fault behavior: Applications in the axial zone of the central Apennines (Italy)

Abstract

The integration of terrain computer modeling with field methods may provide a powerful mechanism for understanding active faults geometry, kinematics and long-term fault behavior. Radar interferometry was used on ERS tandem images to create a geocoded DEM (InSAR-DEM) with a nominal 20-m spatial-resolution of the central Apennines axial zone, a seismically active area characterized by historical destructive earthquakes with M ≤ 7. The potential was tested of InSAR-DEM application to the Fucino and Sulmona basin boundary faults, which have well-defined seismological, paleoseismological and/or geological evidence for their having seismogenic sources. In particular, slope maps extracted from the InSAR-DEM were used for fault scarps detection, whether on carbonate bedrock (“fault scarp type 2”) or affecting continental deposits within the basin (“fault scarp type 1”), and compared with the available geological and new field data. In order to assess the DEM accuracy and to evaluate morphometric parameters related to the long-term slip-rates of the faults, a set of topographic profiles was extracted from the InSAR-DEM and compared with analogous profiles derived from the available topographic map (i.e., 1/25,000, with 25 m contour interval). In particular, the use of InSAR-DEM analyses showed its better results, with respect to the standard topography, for urban/agricultural gently sloped areas where fault scarps affected unconsolidated and particularly soft sediments (e.g., Fucino basin fault systems), while in severely sloped carbonate ridge and forested areas low coherences and layover effects made InSAR-DEM application problematic. A maximum value of 1.1 ± 0.2 mm yr−1 slip-rate was obtained for the Fucino boundary fault. Finally, the recognized en-echelon pattern of the Sulmona basin boundary fault, provided a segmentation model for this structure corroborated by geological-structural field data.