Estimation of co-seismic land deformation due to Mw 7.3 2017 earthquake in Iran (12 November 2017) using Sentinel-1 DInSAR

A strong shaking with Mw 7.3 occurred on 12th November 2017 around the Sarpol-e Zahab town in the border area between Iran and Iraq. It has a number of foreshocks and aftershocks increasing the total deformation, cumulatively. In this study, we have investigated how earth surface deformed after such a strong earthquake and its scatters. Because, the deformation inspection are indispensable for the safety of citizens and infrastructures. The best way for monitoring of surface deformation in such a big event is the SAR technique. This system can work effectively during night and day under different weather conditions. The Interferometric SAR (InSAR) allows accurate measurements of surface deformation in mm resolution. There are several methods for the application of SAR techniques and one of them is Differential InSAR (DInSAR) indicating an uplift and subsidence around epicentral area precisely. We preferred to use it for sensitive vertical displacement in the target area. The seismological data from the observatory centers indicate that the recent earthquake sourced from the NW-SE trending, northeast dipping High Zagros Reverse Fault Zone. According to the results, epicentral area has been exposed a vertical displacement with 90 cm uplift and -41 cm subsidence in the northeastern and southwestern block of the fault, respectively.

___

  • Alavi, M.A. 2007. Structures of the Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt in Iran. American Journal of Science 307, 1064- 1095.
  • Ambraseys, N.N., Melville, C.P. 1982. A History of Persian Earthquakes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • Colman-Sadd, S.P. 1978. Fold development in Zagros simply folded belt, Southwest Iran. Am Assoc Petrol Geol Bull 62, 984–1003.
  • Çomut, F.C. 2016. Farklı yeryüzü özelliklerinde ileri InSAR teknikleri kullanılarak yüzey deformasyonlarının belirlenmesi (Doctoral dissertation, Selçuk Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü).
  • Dehbozorgi, M., Pourkermani, M., Arian, M., Matkan, A.A., Motamedi, H. Hosseiniasl, A. 2010. Quantitative analysis of relative tectonic activity in the Sarvestan area, central Zagros , Iran. Geomorphology 121, 329-341.
  • Dewey, J. F., Hempton, M.R, Kidd, W.S.F., Şaroğlu, F., Şengör, A.M.C. 1986. Shortening of continental lithosphere: The neotectonics of eastern Anatolia-a young collision zone, in Collosion Tectonics (Coward, M.P., and Ries, A.C., edts.), Geological Society Special Publications 19, 3-36.
  • Dilek, Y., Imamverdiyev, N., Atunkaynak, S. 2009. Geochemistry and tectonics of Cenozoic volcanism in the Lesser Caucasus (Azerbaijan) and the peri-Arabian region: collision- induced mantle dynamics and its magmatic fingerprint. International Geology Review 1-42, DOI:10.1080/0020681093360422.
  • Emami, H., Vergés, J., Nalpas, T., Gillespie, P., Sharp, I., Karpuz, R., Blanc, E. P., Goodarzi, M.G.H. 2010. Structure of the Mountain Front Flexure along the Anaran anticline in the Pusht-e Kuh Arc (NW Zagros, Iran): insights from sand box models. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 330, 155-178.
  • EMSC, 2017. https://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/260/ M7-3-Iran-Iraq-Border-Region-on-November- 12th-2017-at-18-18-UTC
  • Fahim Guilany, R., Darvishzadeh, A., Sheikhzakariaee, S.J., Vosoughi Abedini, M. 2019. Geochemical characteristics of Sabalan volcanic rocks in Northwestern Iran. Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration 158, 217-233.
  • Falcon, N. L. 1974. Southern Iran: Zagros Mountains. In: SPENCER, A. M. (ed.) Mesozoic–Cenozoic Orogenic Belts. Data for Orogenic Studies. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 4, 199–211.
  • Ferretti, A., Bianchi, M., Prati, C., Rocca, F. 2005. Higher- Order Permanent Scatterers Analysis. – EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing 20, 3231– 3242.
  • Ghalamghash, J., Mousavi, S.Z., Hassanzadeh, J., Schmitt, A.K. 2016. Geology, zircon geochronology, and petrogenesis of Sabalan volcano (Northwestern Iran). Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 327, 192-207. Doi: 10.1016/j.
  • Goudarzi, M.A. 2010. Detection and measurement of land deformations caused by seismic events using InSAR, sub-pixel correlation and inversion techniques. University of Twente Faculty of Geo-Information and Earth Observation (ITC). jvolgeores.2016.05.001
  • Hanssen, R. F. 2001. Radar interferometry: Data interpretation and error analysis. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers 328 pp. ISBN 0-7923-6945-9.
  • Hooper, A. J. 2006. Persistent scatter radar interferometry for crustal deformation studies and modeling of volcanic deformation, AAI3219289; ISBN: 9780542706905, Stanford University, 124 p.
  • https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ us2000bmcg#region-info
  • https://sentinels.copernicus.eu/web/sentinel/technical- guides/sentinel-1-sar/sar-instrument
  • Intrieri, E., Gigli, G., Casagli, N., Nadim, F. 2013. Brief communication Landslide Early Warning System: Toolbox and general concepts, Natural Hazards and Earth System Science 13(1), 85–90, doi:10.5194/nhess-13-85-90.
  • Kim, J. W. 2013. Applications of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)/SAR Interferometry (InSAR) for Monitoring of Wetland Water Level and Land Subsidence. The Ohio State University.
  • Li, Z., James, B. 2008. Image coregistration in SAR interferometry. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry. Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 37, 433-438.
  • Marinkovic, P., Ramon, H., 2004. Advanced InSARcoregistration using point clusters. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004. IGARSS’04. Proceedings. 2004 IEEE International. Vol. 1. IEEE
  • McQuarrie, N. 2004. Crustal scale geometry of the Zagros fold-thrust belt, Iran. J Struct Geol 26, 519–535.
  • Netzband, M,, William, L. S., Charles, R. 2007. Applied remote sensing for urban planning, governance and sustainability. Springer Science & Business Media.
  • Nissen, E., Ghorashi, M., Jackson, J., Parsons, P., Talebian, M. 2007. The 2005 Qeshm Island earthquake (Iran) – a link between buried reverse faulting and surface folding in the Zagros Simply Folded Belt? Geophys J Int 171, 326–338.
  • Nissen, E., Yamini-Fard, F., Tatar, M., Gholamzadeh, A., Bergman, E., Elliott, J.R., Jackson, J.A., Parsons, B. 2010. The vertical separation of mainshock rupture and microseismicity at Qeshm island in the Zagros Simply Folded Belt, Iran. Earth Planet Sci Lett 296, 181–194.
  • Nissen, E., Tatar, M., Jackson, J.A., Allen, B. 2011. Geodynamics and tectonics New views on earthquake faulting in the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt of Iran. Geophys J Int doi: 10.1111/j.1365- 246X.2011.05119.x.
  • Pritchard, M, E. 2006. InSAR, a tool for measuring Earth’s surface deformation. Physics Today 59, 7, 68.
  • Samieie-Esfahany, S., Hanssen, R., Karin van Thienen- Visser, Annemarie, M. 2009. On the Effect of Horizontal Deformation on InSAR Subsidence Estimates. In Proceedings of the Fringe 2009 Workshop, ESA SP, 677.
  • Şengör, A.M.C., Kidd, W.S.F. 1979. Post-collisional tectonics of the TurkishIranian. Plateau and a comparison with Tibet, Tectonophysics 55, 361- 376.
  • Thiebes, B. 2012. Integrative Early Warning. Landslide Analysis and Early Warning Systems. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 215-219.
  • Walker, R.T., Andalibi, M.J., Gheitanchi, M.R., Jackson, J.A., Karegar, S., Priestley, K. 2005. Seismological and field observations from the 1990 November 6 Furg (Hormozgan) earthquake: a rare case of surface rupture in the Zagros mountains of Iran. Geophys J Int 163, 567–579.
  • Zare, M., Kamranzad, F., Parcharidis, I., Tsironi, V. 2017. Preliminary report of Mw7. 3 Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran earthquake on November 12, 2017. EMSC Report 1-10.