See How The Earth Moves

(Click Above Image to Enlarge)
The image above shows an interferogram, a map of ground movements produced with measurements made remotely by Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), plotted atop digital topography. United Kingdom geophysicists Richard Walters and John Elliott used measurements acquired by a European Space Agency satellite on February 1 and April 12 to capture ground movements from the April 6 earthquake in central Italy. The color bands (red through blue) represent contours of ground motion toward or away from the satellite, within its line of sight. Moving towards the center of each lobe, each contour represents an additional 2.8 centimeters of ground motion. The image shows that during the earthquake, the region to the northeast of the Paganica fault moved toward the satellite by about 8 centimeters, whereas the region to the southwest moved away by about 25 centimeters. Each pixel in the interferogram represents an area of about 80 meters squared. Walters’ and Elliott’s research is funded by the United Kingdom’s Natural Environmental Research Council. The ESA data is copyrighted.

From The American Scientist:

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements, collected by satellites circling Earth, can provide big insights into major earthquakes. Richard Walters and John Elliott demonstrated this after a 6.3-magnitude quake struck central Italy in April, killing close to 300 people and severely damaging the medieval town of L’Aquila. By comparing measurements taken before and after the earthquake, the geophysicists pinpointed the responsible fault, measured changes aboveground and calculated likely shifts underground. Walters and Elliott are researchers at the University of Oxford and the United Kingdom’s National Centre for Earth Observation. In an e-mail exchange, Walters explained their studies to American Scientist associate editor Catherine Clabby.

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