Shallow intraplate earthquakes in Western Australia observed by InSAR  

Authors / CoAuthors

Dawson, J. | Cummins, P.R. | Tregoning, P. | Leonard, M.

Abstract

We investigate two intraplate earthquakes in a stable continental region of southwest Western Australia. Both small-magnitude events occur in the top »1 km of crust and their epicenters are located with an accuracy of »100 m (1¾) using satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). For the Mw 4.7 Katanning earthquake (10 October 2007) the average slip magnitude is 42 cm, over a rupture area of »1 km2. This implies a high stress drop of 14-27 MPa and, even for this very shallow earthquake, has important implications for regional seismic hazard assessment. The earthquake rupture extends from a depth of around 640 m to the surface, making it a rarely observed intraplate, surface-rupturing event. Using InSAR observations we estimate the coseismic slip distribution of the shallow earthquake, such estimates being rarely available for small magnitude events. For the Mw 4.4 composite Kalannie earthquake sequence (21-22 September 2005) we use a long-term time series analysis technique to improve the measurement of the co-seismic signal, which is a maximum of 27 mm in the line-of-sight direction. Double difference seismic analysis shows some relocated cluster seismicity which corresponds in timing, location and source parameters to the InSAR-observed deformation. This earthquake is the smallest magnitude seismic event investigated using InSAR and demonstrates the capability of the technique to provide important constraints on small-magnitude coseismic events. The shallow depth of both these events adds weight to the suggestion that earthquakes associated with tectonic processes in this area of Western Australia often initiate in the upper 1 km of crust.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

65799

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• External Publication

( Theme )

• earthquakes

( Theme )

• remote sensing

• AU-WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2009-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

Security Constraints

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - restricted

Use - license

Status

Purpose

Maintenance Information

unknown

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

Series Information

Lineage

Unknown

Parent Information

Extents

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

Service Information

Associations

Downloads and Links

Source Information

Source data not available.