Surface rupture and distributed deformation revealed by optical satellite imagery: The intraplate 2016 Mw 6.0 Petermann Ranges earthquake, Australia

This investigation uses high-resolution optical satellite imagery to quantify vertical surface offsets associated with the intraplate 20 May 2016 Mw 6.0 Petermann Ranges earthquake, Northern Territory, Australia. The ~20 km long NW-trending rupture resulted from reverse motion on a northeast-dipping fault. We measure vertical surface offsets by differencing pre- and post-earthquake digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from in-track stereo Worldview images. This analysis resolves a maximum vertical deformation of 0.8 ? 0.2 m. We validate these results via comparison to field-based observations and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). This new method may be particularly useful for remote characterization of earthquake ruptures with larger (>1 m) vertical deformation, where near-rupture InSAR observations are often compromised by decorrelation.