Coseismic Faults and Crust Deformation Accompanied the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, China by Field Investigation and InSAR Interferogram

The devastated Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake occurred along the steep eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau in Sichuan, China, on 12 May 2008. Over 86,592 people were dead or missing, 374159 injured, and more than 4.8 million homeless. The ruptures possibly occurred over a length of 285 km along the northeast striking Longmen Shan (LMS) thrust belt. In order to study the oversized fault ruptures, existing active faults related and relationships with the damages caused, we conducted field investigations during 4-15 June and 3-9 October 2008, covered about 140km length of LMS faults, including Beichuan(BC), Anxian(AC), Mianzhu, Shifang, Pengzhou, Dujiangyan, Yingxiu (YX) and Wenchuan. On the field investigation we found coseismic surface faults along several profiles perpendicular to the LMS faults. The coseismic surface faults we discovered were at Leigu(L), Hanwang(H), Yinghua(Y), Bailu(BL), Xiaoyudong(X), and Baiyunding (BYD). Of them the maximum vertical displacement reached 4.6m at L, Beichuan County. The uplifting displacements dominated in the southwestern section of the rupture. Moreover, the northwest-striking left-lateral fault was found with horizontal displacement of 2.8m, and vertical of 1.5m as well, at X, Pengzhou City. The left-lateral fault, inversely under-controlled movement of right- lateral fault in the area, showed the complexity of the fault movements. The field results showed the coseismic surface ruptures locally while the overall faults movements and Crust deformation could be understood by the Interferometric SAR(InSAR) technique (NIED, 2008) using data from the Phased Array L-band SAR sensor (PALSAR) equipped on Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). The larger deformation zones detected by InSAR interferogram occurred with a width of ~30 km in southwestern section, and of ~10km in northeastern section of LMS faults. In the southwestern section, the deformation zone occurred mostly within the existing active faults zones: Guanxian-Anxian faults F1 that eastbound the Sichuan basin, Wenchuan-Maoxian fault F3 that westbound the Tibetan plateau, and Yingxiu- Beichuan faults F2 that located in the between. From X to AC in the middle section of LMS faults, the deformation zone occurred from F1 to F2 and even over F2. In the northeastern section, it almost fit the fault F2 from BC to Pingtong(PT), Nanba(NB), Shiba(SB) and Qingchuan (QC) in a narrow zone. The coseismic faults were confirmed by both field investigation and InSAR interferometry along the following segments: Segment 1: from/through BYD, YX to X along Yingxiu-Beichuan faults F2; Segment 2: changed direction at X as a corner to N60E, went along the N20W Xiaoyudong fault until BL as another corner; Segment 3: from/through BL, H along Guanxian-Anxian faults F1 until AC(Angchang); Segment 4: changed direction at AC as a corner to N00E, went along the Leigu fault through L, to BC; Segment 5: from/through BC, PT, NB and SB to QC along Yingxiu-Beichuan faults F2. Among these segments, the Segment 1 and Segment 4 supposedly played important roles for triggering or transferring the ruptured faults F1 to the ruptured faults F2. The InSAR interferogram from X to BC showed the grey belt, whose phase incoherence demonstrated strong earth-crust deformation, but it was difficult to identify whether the coseismic faults occurred or not. On the other hand, no coseismic faults from X to BC are reported, where road was/is blocked in the mountain area.