GPS Displacement Research Articles

A newly unraveled 13.6-year oscillation from GPS displacements and its potential implications for the dynamic reference frame

A newly unraveled 13.6-year oscillation from GPS displacements and its potential implications for the dynamic reference frame

Lithospheric rheology in West Tibet and Pamir constrained from the postseismic deformation of the 2005 Mw7.6 Kashmir (Pakistan) earthquake

We study the postseismic deformation of the 2005 Mw7.6 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan, with a combination of the near- and far-field geodetic observations from the Kashmir Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, respectively. We construct a 3D finite-element model that integrates topographic relief, curved fault plane, and layered lithospheric structures to analyze stress-driven afterslip and estimate the rheological parameters of the Tibetan lithosphere. Our findings reveal that the ten-year afterslips of up to 30 cm were primarily localized at the downdip edges of co-seismic slip patches, causing near-field surface deformation of up to ∼5 cm within the first year. In contrast, viscoelastic relaxation in the lower crust of western Tibet and Pamir was required to reproduce far-field displacements of up to 1–2 cm recorded by GPS during the first 7 years. The model that best fits to the GPS displacements suggests a Maxwell viscosity exceeding 1020 Pa s for the Indian lower crust, while a much lower viscosity of ∼4–10×1018 Pa s is inferred for the lower crust beneath Pamir and western Tibet, indicating a softer Tibet and Pamir in response to the continental collision between India and Eurasia.

Postseismic processes in the region of the july 29, 2021 Chigni earthquake, Alaska. Part I: modeling results

We analyze the postseismic processes in the region of the Mw 8.2 Chignik earthquake, which occurred on July 29, 2021. Using the seismic rupture surface model constructed in our previous paper (Konvisar et al., 2023), we have simulated the viscoelastic relaxation process. The results of the simulation have shown that reducing the viscosity of the asthenosphere to 1018 Pa ‧ s in the calculations gives displacement velocities close to those recorded at the GPS coastal points. However, the displacements on islands close to the earthquake source region differ significantly not only in magnitude but also in direction. At the same time, the constructed model of the postseismic creep is closely consistent with the GPS displacement data and with the LOS (line-of-sight) displacement map derived from radar images acquired from the descending orbit of Sentinel 1A satellite. We also analyze temporal variations of the gravity field in the earthquake region. The obtained coseismic anomaly agrees with the anomaly calculated from the rupture surface model. Due to the insufficiently long series of gravity models after the earthquake, it is not yet possible to isolate the postseismic anomaly. The analysis of the postseismic processes is continued in the second part of this work (Smirnov et al., 2024), where we present the compare the time evolution of the postseismic displacements of various GPS sites with the aftershock activity, which allows us to draw conclusions about the creep nature of the postseismic processes in the source region of the Chignik earthquake.

Source characteristics of the 2006 Pingtung earthquake doublet off southern Taiwan and the possible contribution of submarine landslides to the Tsunami

On 26th December 2006, two successive large earthquakes of Mw ∼7.0, occurred offshore southwest Taiwan, being 8 min apart, known as the 2006 Pingtung earthquake doublet. The earthquakes triggered a hazard chain consisting of regional-scale tsunamis, submarine landslides, and turbidity currents. The tsunami waves with moderate height (10–60 cm) were recorded by 12 tide gauges along southern Taiwan, Guangdong, and Fujian provinces. Submarine landslide-induced turbidity currents inflicted widespread damage to telecommunication cables across the Kaoping Canyon and Manila Trench. Although the mechanisms of the individual hazard in the chain have been investigated previously, the interaction mechanisms and the causal relationship among them remain unclear due to the complexity of the dynamic process. Here, with the best available instrumental records of these events, we first reexamined the earthquake doublet's source characteristics and obtained the earthquake source models using regional seismic waves, high-rate GPS displacements, and strong motion waveforms. We then conducted forward tsunami modeling, along with spectral analysis of the tide gauge records and backward tsunami ray tracing technique, to gain insight of the hydrodynamic features of tsunamis and the contribution of landslides to tsunami generation. The main findings can be summarized as follows. The centroid depth of the first earthquake was found to be ∼28 km, which is shallower than the local CWB catalog suggested. The slip distribution was characterized by two close slip patches, ranging over depths of 15–35 km and occupying 40 km along the strike. The shallower focal depth and normal-faulting mechanism can well explain the recorded tsunami waves. Notably, wave analysis suggests that tsunami waves induced by landslides may have occurred in two episodes. The first round was likely produced by the landslides triggered simultaneously by the initial earthquake doublet. The largest aftershock, which occurred 14 h after the doublet with a strike-slip mechanism, may have caused the landslides near the head of Kaoping Canyon and possibly the second-round tsunami.

Correction to: Seasonal components in GPS displacement time series

Correction to: Seasonal components in GPS displacement time series

Structural characterization and attempted displacement interpretation of the Baishuihe landslide using integrated geophysical methods

The Baishuihe landslide, a typical large-scale deposit landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, has attracted considerable societal and scholarly attention. Since 2003, 11 displacement monitoring points have been established on the landslide mass for monitoring displacement data. Displacement monitoring data from 14 years have been widely applied in landslide displacement prediction research. However, there is a lack of research involving interpretations of displacement data. To interpret landslide displacement from geological and hydrodynamic perspectives, we applied integrated geophysical methods, including electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), self-potential (SP), and surface nuclear magnetic resonance (SNMR), to model the landslide structure and investigate groundwater activity. The results indicate that the landslide deposit is predominantly located at the foot of the landslide, with a total volume of approximately 7.7 × 106 cubic meters. The thickness gradually increases in the eastern direction of the landslide along the sliding direction, while in the western direction, it initially increases and then decreases. The SNMR results reveal that groundwater is primarily situated in the gravel soil layer, demonstrating a volumetric water content of approximately 2.8% per unit volume. The SP results suggest that below an elevation of 190 m, the groundwater flow field is turbulent and irregular. Above an elevation of 190 m, the general direction of the groundwater flow field tends to align roughly with the sliding direction. Through the integration of GPS displacement monitoring data and comprehensive geophysical analysis, we discerned that the thickness of the deposit layer, the morphology of the sliding surface, and the interaction with groundwater recharge collectively exert significant influences on the displacement of the Baishuihe landslide. Generally, the thickness of the deposit layer and the morphology of the sliding surface determine whether the landslide will exhibit significant displacement. At a more detailed level, the weight of the accumulated mass and the influence of groundwater play a significant role in determining the displacement velocity.

Time-Varying GPS Displacement Network Modeling by Sequential Monte Carlo.

Geodetic observations through high-rate GPS time-series data allow the precise modeling of slow ground deformation at the millimeter level. However, significant attention has been devoted to utilizing these data for various earth science applications, including to determine crustal velocity fields and to detect significant displacement from earthquakes. The relationships inherent in these GPS displacement observations have not been fully explored. This study employs the sequential Monte Carlo method, specifically particle filtering (PF), to develop a time-varying analysis of the relationships among GPS displacement time-series within a network, with the aim of uncovering network dynamics. Additionally, we introduce a proposed graph representation to enhance the understanding of these relationships. Using the 1-Hz GEONET GNSS network data of the Tohoku-Oki Mw9.0 2011 as a demonstration, the results demonstrate successful parameter tracking that clarifies the observations' underlying dynamics. These findings have potential applications in detecting anomalous displacements in the future.

Mechanism and implications of the post-seismic deformation following the 2021 Mw 7.4 Maduo (Tibet) earthquake

SUMMARY A major earthquake shook the Chinese county of Maduo, located in the Songpan-Ganzi terrane on the Tibetan Plateau, on 21 May 2021. Here, we investigate the post-seismic deformation process of this event, with the aim to understand the fault geometry, friction behaviour and regional rheology. To keep the self-consistency between co- and post-seismic deformation models, we first constrain the fault geometry and coseismic slip model of this event, which are directly used in modelling the post-seismic deformation. The coseimsic slip model reveals that the majority of coseismic slip is confined at the middle (3–15 km) of the brittle layer, leading to significant shallow slip deficit. Secondly, we obtain the post-seismic deformation in the first 450 d following the 2021 Maduo earthquake using the GPS and InSAR displacement time-series data. Thirdly, a combined model incorporating afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation is built to explain the observed post-seismic deformation. Our results suggest that the viscoelastic relaxation effect should be considered in the observation period, in order to avoid the unphysical deep afterslip in the ductile lower crustal layer. Combined analysis on viscosities inferred from this study and previous studies suggests a weak lower crust with steady-state viscosity of 1018–1019 Pa s beneath the Songpan-Ganzi terrane, which may give rise to the distributed shear deformation and the development of subparallel secondary faults within the terrane. Besides, the inferred afterslip on uppermost patches of the middle fault segment suggests a rate-strengthening frictional behaviour that may be related to the coseismic slip deficit and rupture arrest of the Maduo earthquake.

Coseismic Faulting Model and Post-Seismic Surface Motion of the 2023 Turkey–Syria Earthquake Doublet Revealed by InSAR and GPS Measurements

On 6 February 2023 (UTC), an earthquake doublet, consisting of the Mw 7.8 Pazarcik earthquake and the Mw 7.5 Elbistan earthquake, struck south-central Turkey and northwestern Syria, which was the largest earthquake that occurred in Turkey since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake. The faulting model of this earthquake was estimated based on the coseismic InSAR and GPS displacements. In addition, the best-fitting coseismic faulting model indicates that both the Pazarcik earthquake and the Elbistan earthquake were controlled by predominated left-lateral strike-slip motion, with slip peaks of 9.7 m and 10.8 m, respectively. The Coulomb failure stress (CFS) change suggests that the Pazarcik earthquake has a positive effect in triggering the rupture of the seismogenic fault of the Elbistan earthquake. Furthermore, these two main shocks promoted the occurrence of the Mw 6.3 strong aftershock. Additionally, it is found that the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake doublet increased the rupture risk of the Puturge segment of the EAF fault and the northern segment of the Dead Sea Fault (DSF). It is crucial to note that the northern segment of the DSF has not experienced a large earthquake in several centuries, highlighting the need for heightened attention to the potential seismic hazard of this segment. Finally, a deformation zone adjacent to the DSF was identified, potentially attributed to the motion of a blind submarine fault.

Characterization of Changes in Groundwater Storage in the Lachlan Catchment, Australia, Derived From Observations of Surface Deformation and Groundwater Level Data

AbstractGlobal Positioning System (GPS) deformation measurements were combined with groundwater level data to examine the spatiotemporal variability of groundwater storage in the Lachlan catchment located in central New South Wales (Australia). After correcting for effects of glacial isostatic adjustment, non‐tidal oceanic and atmospheric loading as well as hydrologic loading using existing models, we show that the seasonal and interannual variability of ground deformation and hydraulic head level data, extracted using wavelet time‐frequency analysis, exhibits an in‐phase behavior, indicating that the observed surface deformation is the poroelastic response to groundwater pressure change in aquifer system. Combination of GPS displacement and groundwater level change enables the estimation of elastic skeletal specific storage coefficients, which were then used for estimating groundwater storage changes. The estimated groundwater storage changes clearly reflect the four climate events of the Lachlan catchment since 1996: (a) the Millennium drought over 1996–2009, (b) the 2011–2012 La Nina and two significant floods in 2012 and 2016, (c) the drought conditions from mid‐2017 to late‐2019, and (d) the return of La Nina conditions since early 2020. We also found annual and long‐term groundwater storage variations of respectively and over the period 2012–2021. Moreover, we show that groundwater level fluctuations can be predicted from GPS displacement measurements and storage coefficients with sufficient accuracy (80% correlation and 70% RMS reduction when compared in terms of seasonal cycle). This study provides essential information that can contribute to future groundwater planning, management, and control over the Australian continent.

Correction of spatially varying stratified atmospheric delays in multitemporal InSAR

Tropospheric delay is a major limiting factor in ground displacement retrieval using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). Such delays are caused by the variations of pressure, temperature, and humidity of the troposphere, potentially leading to elevation-dependent phases in interferograms. The atmospheric heterogeneity makes the phase-elevation dependence vary in both space and time, posing challenges on empirical models that estimated the elevation-topography relationship in empirically predefined windows interferogram by interferogram. Moreover, the portion of the deformation that is correlated with topography can be mistaken as tropospheric delays and therefore degrade the performance of linear regression between the tropospheric phase and the elevation. The effectiveness of these methods is further limited by the requisite knowledge presumed of the user, particularly with regard to how to divide the scene and which observation model is suitable. These limitations make reliable isolation of tropospheric delay challenging. We present here a novel approach that combines tropospheric delay, deformation and possible topographic error to a joint model, enabling a precise separation of tropospheric delay. The rationale is rooted in the distinct temporal dependencies of these parameters. To avoid empirical setting of segmentation windows, we employ quadtree to adaptively control the spatial variability of tropospheric properties. We validate the proposed method at two volcanic areas, Bali and Hawaii, where tropospheric delay presents notable variability coupled with elevation-correlated deformation signals. Both ascending and descending Sentinel-1 data over the island of Bali show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional ones. The misfit standard deviation (STD) is reduced by ∼50% at the island of Bali, where elevation-correlated deformation is simulated according to a predefined model. More impressively, at the island of Hawaii, the misfit STD between InSAR and ground truth (i.e., GPS displacements) decreases from 25.1 to 4.5 mm. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective in reducing the spatially variable tropospheric delay while preserving the elevation-correlated deformation signal.

Active Triclinic Transtension in a Volcanic Arc: A Case of the El Salvador Fault Zone in Central America

The El Salvador Fault Zone (ESFZ) is part of the Central American Volcanic Arc and accommodates the oblique separation movement between the forearc sliver and the Chortis block (Caribbean Plate). In this work, a triclinic transtension model was applied to geological (fault-slip inversion, shape of volcanic calderas), seismic (focal mechanisms) and geodetic (GPS displacements) data to evaluate the characteristics of the last stages of the kinematic evolution of the arc. The El Salvador Fault Zone constitutes a large band of transtensional deformation whose direction varies between N90° E and N110° E. Its dip is about 70° S because it comes from the reactivation of a previous extensional stage. A protocol consisting of three successive steps was followed to compare the predictions of the model with the natural data. The results show a simple shear direction plunging between 20° and 50° W (triclinic flow) and a kinematic vorticity number that is mostly higher than 0.81 (simple-shearing-dominated flow). The direction of shortening of the coaxial component would be located according to the dip of the deformation band. It was concluded that this type of analytical model could be very useful in the kinematic study of active volcanic arcs, even though only information on small deformation increments is available.

Service performance evaluation of long-span cable-stayed bridge based on health monitoring data

Service performance evaluation is of great significance to the safety, durability, and reliability of bridge engineering. Over the last decade, structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have been widely used for condition monitoring of cable-stayed bridges, massive monitoring data are measured and stored by the sensing subsystems, which provides the basis for service performance evaluation of bridge engineering. Meanwhile, the load test is a common method to assess the construction and service performance of bridges. Combined the SHM systems and a load test of a thousand-meter level cable-stayed bridge after ten years of service, this paper investigates the operating conditions of main structures, including bridge towers, main girders, and steel cables. 52 trucks were used to conduct a quasi-static load on three key sections of bridges. Meanwhile, the GPS displacement of towers and main girders, stress of the main girders and acceleration responses of cables were measured synchronously by the SHM systems. Based on the health monitoring data, the dynamic responses, structural deformation, and cable tension of the bridge were investigated and evaluated by comparing with the finite element (FE) model load test at construction stage. The results show that the service performance of the bridge is basically within the designed conditions.

Potential Fault Displacement Hazard Assessment Using Stochastic Source Models: A Retrospective Evaluation for the 1999 Hector Mine Earthquake

Surface fault displacement due to an earthquake affects buildings and infrastructure in the near-fault area significantly. Although approaches for probabilistic fault displacement hazard analysis have been developed and applied in practice, there are several limitations that prevent fault displacement hazard assessments for multiple locations simultaneously in a physically consistent manner. This study proposes an alternative approach that is based on stochastic source modelling and fault displacement analysis using Okada equations. The proposed method evaluates the fault displacement hazard potential due to a fault rupture. The developed method is applied to the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake from a retrospective perspective. The stochastic-source-based fault displacement hazard analysis method successfully identifies multiple source models that predict fault displacements in close agreement with observed GPS displacement vectors and displacement offsets along the fault trace. The case study for the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake demonstrates that the proposed stochastic-source-based method is a viable option in conducting probabilistic fault displacement hazard analysis.

Microseismicity Appears to Outline Highly Coupled Regions on the Central Chile Megathrust.

We compiled a novel microseismicity catalog for the Central Chile megathrust (29°–35°S), comprising 8,750 earthquakes between April 2014 and December 2018. These events describe a pattern of three trenchward open half‐ellipses, consisting of a continuous, coast‐parallel seismicity band at 30–45 km depth, and narrow elongated seismicity clusters that protrude to the shallow megathrust and separate largely aseismic regions along strike. To test whether these shapes could outline highly coupled regions (“asperities”) on the megathrust, we invert GPS displacement data for interplate locking. The best‐fit locking model does not show good correspondence to seismicity, possibly due to lacking resolution. When we prescribe high locking inside the half‐ellipses, however, we obtain models with similar data fits that are preferred according to the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). We thus propose that seismicity on the Central Chile megathrust may outline three adjacent highly coupled regions, two of them located between the rupture areas of the 2010 Maule and the 2015 Illapel earthquakes, a segment of the Chilean margin that may be in a late interseismic stage of the seismic cycle.

Potential Contributors to Common Mode Error in Array GPS Displacement Fields in Taiwan Island

The existence of the common mode error (CME) in the continuous global navigation satellite system (GNSS) coordinate time series affects geophysical studies that use GNSS observations. To understand the potential contributors of CME in GNSS networks in Taiwan and their effect on velocity estimations, we used the principal component analysis (PCA) and independent component analysis (ICA) to filter the vertical coordinate time series from 44 high-quality GNSS stations in Taiwan island in China, with a span of 10 years. The filtering effects have been evaluated and the potential causes of the CME are analyzed. The root-mean-square values decreased by approximately 14% and 17% after spatio-temporal filtering using PCA and ICA, respectively. We then discuss the relationship between the CME sources obtained by ICA and the environmental loads. The results reveal that the independent displacements extracted by ICA correlate with the atmospheric mass loading (ATML) and land water storage mass loading (LWS) of Taiwan in terms of both its amplitude and phase. We then use the white noise plus power law noise model to quantitatively estimate the noise characteristics of the pre- and post-filtered coordinate time series based on the maximum likelihood estimation criterion. The results indicate that spatio-temporal filtering reduces the amplitude of the PL and the periodic terms in the GPS time series.

Post-Seismic Deformation Related to the 2016 Central Italy Seismic Sequence From GPS Displacement Time-Series.

The 2016–2017 Central Italy earthquake sequence struck the central Apennines between August 2016 and October 2016 with Mw ∈ [5.9; 6.5], plus four earthquakes occurring in January 2017 with Mw ∈ [5.0; 5.5]. We study Global Positioning System time series including near‐ and far‐field domains. We use a variational Bayesian independent component analysis technique to separate the post‐seismic deformation from signals caused by variation of the water content in aquifers at hundreds of meters of depth and of the soil moisture. For each independent component, realistic uncertainties and a plausible physical explanation are provided. We focus on the study of afterslip on the main structures surrounding the mainshock, highlighting the role played by faults that were not activated during the co‐seismic phase in accommodating the post‐seismic deformation. We report aseismic deformation occurring on the Paganica fault, which hosted the Mw 6.1 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, suggesting that static stress transfer and aseismic slip influence the recurrence time of nearby (∼50 km further south of the mainshocks) segments. A ∼2–3 km thick subhorizontal shear‐zone, clearly illuminated by seismicity, which bounds at depth the west‐dipping normal faults where the mainshocks nucleated, also shows aseismic slip. Since afterslip alone underestimates the displacement in the far‐field domain, we consider the possibility that the shear zone marks the brittle‐ductile transition, assuming the viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust as a mechanism contributing to the post‐seismic displacement. Our results suggest that multiple deformation processes are active in the first 2 years after the mainshocks.

3D Modeling of Long‐Term Slow Slip Events Along the Flat‐Slab Segment in the Guerrero Seismic Gap, Mexico

AbstractDuring the last two decades, quasi‐periodic long‐term slow slip events (SSEs) of magnitude up to Mw7.5 have been observed about every 4 years in the Guerrero Seismic Gap, Mexico. We present numerical simulations of the long‐term SSE cycles along the 3D slab geometry of central Mexico. Our model accounts for the hydrated oceanic crust in the framework of rate‐and‐state friction and captures the major source characteristics of the long‐term SSEs occurring between 2001 and 2014, as inferred from geodetic observations. Synthetic surface deformation calculated from simulated fault slip is in good agreement with the cumulative GPS displacements. Our results suggest that the flat‐slab segment of the Cocos plate aids the large magnitudes and long recurrence interval of the long‐term SSEs. We conclude that 3D slab geometry is an important factor in improving our understanding of the physics of slow slip events.

Integrated coseismic displacement derived from high-rate GPS and strong-motion seismograph: Application to the 2017 Ms 7.0 Jiuzhaigou Earthquake

Near-field coseismic displacement information is very important for seismological research. High-rate GPS and seismic sensors are mutually advantageous for capturing earthquake-induced coseismic displacements. The combination of them can help to improve the near-field observation results. In this paper, we propose a combined model of fusing GPS and strong-motion records by taking into consideration the corrections of baseline shift, and then apply a multi-rate Kalman filter to analyze the collocated GPS and strong-motion data. The performance of the proposed approach is validated using 1 Hz GPS data and 200 Hz strong-motion data collected within 150 km from the epicenter during the Ms 7.0 Jiuzhaigou earthquake occurred on August 8, 2017 in Sichuan Province, China (33.20°N, 103.82°E). It shows that the GPS displacements based on the Epoch-relative Positioning Approach well reflect the instantaneous motion state of stations during the earthquake, indicating that the maximum instantaneous displacement of SCJZ station is 3.2 cm in north and −2.0 cm in east, and the permanent displacement of SCSP station is −0.6 cm in north. More accurate and reliable broadband displacements less than 1 cm are obtained by the combination model, which provide the full spectrum of the seismic motion. The integrated displacements have more characteristics of strong-motion results in the early stage of the earthquake with less noise, and in the strong shaking period, tightly bound by the GPS displacements, the integrated displacements will not diverge, and thus accurately record the long-period information of seismic waves.

Deformation characteristics, mechanisms, and influencing factors of hydrodynamic pressure landslides in the Three Gorges Reservoir: a case study and model test study

Hydrodynamic Pressure landslides are the most typical landslides affected by the water level in the Three Gorges Reservoir. These types of landslides are large and cause severe deformation. Therefore, they may significantly affect the safe operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir once losing stability. Taking the Shuping landslide in the Three Gorges Reservoir as a typical case, this study explored the deformation characteristics and influencing factors of the Hydrodynamic Pressure landslide using monitoring data of its surface deformation, 17 years of GPS displacement data, automatic displacement metre of surface cracks, and groundwater level. To determine the deformation mechanism of the Hydrodynamic Pressure landslide, the model of Hydrodynamic Pressure landslide was designed and carried out to simulate the fluctuation of reservoir water level. The results showed that the hydrodynamic pressure landslides deformation was mainly affected by the overall deformation of the front edge of the landslide, and the amount of deformation was relatively large. The back part of the landslide mainly encountered tensile deformation. The Hydrodynamic Pressure landslides are a typical retrogressive deformation. The deformation of Hydrodynamic Pressure landslide was affected by the periodic change in the reservoir water level and the overall deformation trend is increasing. The intrinsic factor influencing the deformation of the hydrodynamic pressure landslide is the low permeability coefficient of the sliding mass, and the extrinsic factor is the drawdown of the reservoir water level. When the reservoir water table drawdown occurred, there was a noticeable water level difference with the underground water level in the landslide mass and generated hydrodynamic pressure. The Hydrodynamic Pressure landslide model results showed that the pore-water pressure, effective stress, and groundwater level in the landslide were consistent with the reservoir water level but with noticeable hysteresis. The key hydrodynamic factor for the deformation of this type of landslide was the hydrodynamic pressure towards the outside of the slope, formed when the reservoir water level dropped. Moreover, it was found that the faster reservoir water-level drawdown rates led to an increased influence on the stability of the landslide.