Strain accumulation along various faults in the Kashmir Himalaya from InSAR
Abstract
We are using InSAR time-series analysis to measure the interseismic deformation across various faults of the Kashmir Himalaya. Active faults reaching the surface include the Main Boundary Faults, Bagh-Balakot Fault, which ruptured in the 2005 Kashmir earthquake (Mw 7.6), Jhelum Fault, Reasi Thrust and intra-Kashmir basin faults. We concentrate on these shallow faults that are closest to the people living in Kashmir. The Main Boundary Faults and other faults likely connect to the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) that is the plate-boundary megathrust beneath Kashmir and the rest of the Himalayas. The MHT has been suggested as a possible source for Mw 8 to Mw 8.5 earthquakes in this area. We have generated a total of 76 interferograms by processing pairs from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency ALOS-2 L-band (24 cm wavelength) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) wide-swath (ScanSAR) data acquired between 2015 and 2020. The interferogram processing was carried out using the alos2App application of the InSAR Scientific Computing Environment ISCE2 package, with ionospheric corrections enabled. We found that many scenes acquired in the winter form pairs that have low coherence due to snow cover in the High Himalayas and Pir Panjal Range. We also found that phase unwrapping in the mountains was improved by taking x range and y azimuth looks for an effective resolution of about 200 meters. A time-series InSAR analysis using an open-source Python toolbox, MIntPy, will be carried out soon.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMG004.0002S
- Keywords:
-
- 1240 Satellite geodesy: results;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY;
- 1241 Satellite geodesy: technical issues;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY;
- 1294 Instruments and techniques;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY;
- 1295 Integrations of techniques;
- GEODESY AND GRAVITY