The GAGE Data and Field Response to the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence

Abstract

Abstract The July 2019 Ridgecrest sequence was observed in exquisite detail by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) Network of the Americas (NOTA), which has a dense array of continuously observing Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations and subarrays of strain and seismic borehole networks in southern California. Two hundred and eighteen GNSS and 10 borehole NOTA stations within 250 km of the epicentral area recorded the sequence. Special downloads of high-rate data from sites within a specified radius of each earthquake were initiated by the GAGE Facility for the time period of 1.5 days before and 1.5 days after each event to ensure transient deformation was captured at a high-temporal resolution. Rapid field deployments of temporary GNSS stations were carried out by UNAVCO in support of NSF-funded investigators and U.S. Geological Survey activities. The data recorded by the permanent network are available from the GAGE Facility’s Data Center at UNAVCO, data recorded at the temporary campaign sites will also be made available on completion of data collection. The OpenTopography project, of which UNAVCO is a partner, released a preliminary pre-event digital surface model of the area covering the Ridgecrest earthquake sequence to support the ongoing imaging efforts to measure the deformation from these events. In this article, we document the significant amount of detailed, open-access geodetic data available from GAGE to study this sequence and advance our understanding of earthquake processes, the geodynamics of the California eastern shear zone, and our capacity to respond to damaging earthquakes for research.