FAULT DISPLACEMENT OF WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE OBSERVED BY ALOS PALSAR

Wenchuan earthquake (Mw 7.9) occurred in Sichuan province, China, May 2008 had resulted in a huge fault displacement around the Lungmenshan fault. Preliminary results of the fault displacement observed by ALOS PALSAR interferometry are presented. The surface deformation by the Wenchuan earthquake was reported up to 10m consisting of thrust- and right-slip compnents. A significant reduction in ionospheric density was also reported. Twenty differential interferograms and twenty multiple aperture SAR interferometry (MAI) pairs were produced over four ALOS tracks. It was observed from differential interferograms that i) LOS deformation decreases steadily from northnorthwest of the Longmenshan fault to the fault, ii) the LOS deformation sharply increases at areas around the fault, and iii) the decrease of the LOS deformation is observed from the Longmenshan fault to the south-southeast of the fault. Horizontal movement of the reverse fault displacement can better be observed by MAI technique, and the MAI phases show that i) the south-southeast directional reverse fault displacement (negative along-track deformation for an ascending track) of the north-northwest block gradually increases to the Longmenshan fault, ii) the reverse fault movement of the south-southeast block is sharply reversed to the north-northwest of the fault, and iii) the northnorthwest movement gradually decreases to the south-southeast of fault. Although the Lonmenshan Fault line is a center of earthquake epicenter, the boundary of surface movement exists to the north-northeast of the fault. Since the ionosphere was not stable even forty days after the mainshock, MAI phases were seriously corrupted by ionospheric effect. It is necessary to acquire more data when the ionosphere recovered to a normal state.