Earthquake relocations and InSAR analysis following the June 12th 2011 eruption of Nabro volcano, Afar

Nabro volcano sits on the southern part of Danakil block to the east of the Afar depression, on the Arabian plate. On the 12th June 2011, Nabro volcano suddenly erupted after being inactive for 10,000 years. The eruption caused a 17-km-long lava flow, a 15-km-high ash cloud, and ranks as one of the largest emissions of SO2 since the Mt. Pinatubo (1991) event. This eruption creates an important opportunity to use seismicity and surface deformation measurements to understand the subsurface magmatic system and deformation of a hazardous, off axis caldera during continental rupture. We installed a network of 8 seismometers around Nabro caldera which began recording on the 31st August and tasked SAR acquisitions from TerraSAR-X (TSX) and Cosmo-SkyMed (CSK) satellites. The SAR images used for this study post date the eruption. We used TSX stripmap mode images from ascending and descending orbits. Using a small baseline approach, we used 25 images acquired between the 1st July 2011 to the 5th October 2012 on descending orbit 046, to create 34 interferograms. We complemented these with 19 images from ascending orbit 130 spanning the 6th July 2011 to the 10th October 2012 from ascending orbit 130, which we used to create 21 interferograms. We produced a velocity ratemap and timeseries using π-RATE showing subsidence of up to 25cm/yr centred on Nabro. We used a Monte-Carlo hybrid downhill simplex technique to invert the dataset and found the best fitting solution as a mogi source at 6.9 ±1.1 km depth, and located at a 13.35 (lat) and 41.69 (long). The time dependence observed is consistent with a viscoelastic relaxation around the magma chamber, following depletion. Concurrent with the TSX acquisitions, CSK imaged the volcano on a descending track between 26th June 2011 and 18th July 2012 within the ASI project SAR4Volcanoes, and 64 images were used to produce 171 interferograms which were inverted to form a timeseries using a SBAS approach. This dataset has an overall subsidence signal, but the time series shows a shorter wavelength fluctuation of ground deformation, which is not apparent in the TSX data. We processed the seismic signals detected by the temporary local network and by a seismic station within a permanent regional array, to provide hypocentre locations for the period September-October, 2011. We used Hypoinverse-2000 to provide preliminary locations for events, which were then relocated using HypoDD. Absolute error after Hypoinverse-2000 processing was approximately ±2 and ±4 km in the horizontal and the vertical directions, respectively. Using HypoDD, relative errors were reduced to ±20 and ±30 m in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. The hypocentres show clusters of activity as well as aseismic regions. The majority of the earthquakes are located at the active vent, with fewer events located on the flanks. There is a smaller cluster of events to the south-west of Nabro beneath neighbouring Mallahle volcanic caldera, despite no eruption occurring here nor any post-eruptive deformation. This may imply some stress triggering mechanism or some pressure connection between the magma system of the two calderas. We present both the seismic and InSAR datasets as a joint approach to understand this eruption, as well as further implications for other ‘quiet calderas’

High Performance Computing in Satellite SAR Interferometry: A Critical Perspective

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry has rapidly evolved in the last decade and can be considered today as a mature technology, which incorporates computationally intensive and data-intensive tasks. In this paper, a perspective on the state-of-the-art of high performance computing (HPC) methodologies applied to spaceborne SAR interferometry (InSAR) is presented, and the different parallel algorithms for interferometric processing of SAR data are critically discussed at different levels. Emphasis is placed on the key processing steps, which typically occur in the interferometric techniques, categorized according to their computational relevance. Existing implementations of the different InSAR stages using diverse parallel strategies and architectures are examined and their performance discussed. Furthermore, some InSAR computational schemes selected in the literature are analyzed at the level of the entire processing chain, thus emphasizing their potentialities and limitations. Therefore, the survey focuses on the inherent computational approaches enabling large-scale interferometric SAR processing, thus offering insight into some open issues, and outlining future trends in the field

Volcanic Processes Monitoring and Hazard Assessment Using Integration of Remote Sensing and Ground-Based Techniques

The monitoring of active volcanoes is a complex task based on multidisciplinary and integrated analyses that use ground, drones, and satellite monitoring devices [...

Volcanic Processes Monitoring and Hazard Assessment Using Integration of Remote Sensing and Ground-Based Techniques

The monitoring of active volcanoes is a complex task based on multidisciplinary and integrated analyses that use ground, drones, and satellite monitoring devices [...

Radar remote sensing from space for surface deformation analysis: present and future opportunities from the new SAR sensor generation

This paper discusses, through two selected case studies based on real data, how the availability of the new generation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors, characterized by reduced revisiting time and improved spatial resolution or coverage, is impacting the exploitation of Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) techniques for the detection and monitoring of deformation phenomena. The presented analysis is carried out using X-band data of the COSMO-SkyMed constellation satellites, as well as C-band data acquired by the Sentinel-1A sensor; furthermore, we compare the achieved results to those based on first-generation ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT satellite data. The first case study shows how the COSMO-SkyMed X-band SAR systems open new opportunities for the detection and monitoring of deformation phenomena at the scale of a single building, even when they are characterized by a rather fast dynamic. The second experiment is based on the Sentinel-1A DInSAR measurements and permits us to envisage new scenarios for deformation analysis of very wide areas. The final discussion is devoted to summarise the lessons learned through the presented case studies and to identify the main future actions needed for a full exploitation of the surface deformation measurement capability provided by the new generation of SAR senso

Geodetic Model of the March 2021 Thessaly Seismic Sequence Inferred from Seismological and InSAR Data

In this work, we propose a geodetic model for the March 2021 Thessaly seismic sequence (TSS). We used the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique and exploited a dataset of Sentinel-1 images to successfully detect the surface deformation caused by three major events of the sequence and constrain their kinematics, further strengthened by seismic data analysis. Our geodetic inversions are consistent with the activation of distinct blind faults previously unknown in this region: three belonging to the NE-dipping normal fault associated with the Mw 6.3 and Mw 6.0 events, and one belonging to the SW-dipping normal fault associated with the Mw 5.6, the last TSS major event. We performed a Coulomb stress transfer analysis and a 1D pore pressure diffusivity modeling to investigate the space–time evolution of the sequence; our results indicate that the seismic sequence developed in a sort of domino effect. The combination of the lack of historical records of large earthquakes in this area and the absence of mapped surface features produced by past faulting make seismic hazard estimation difficult for this area: InSAR data analysis and modeling have proven to be an extremely useful tool in helping to constrain the rupture characteristics

Ground deformation related to slip and afterslip of the 29 December 2020 Mw 6.4 Petrijna earthquake (Croatia) imaged by InSAR

International audience<p>On December 29, 2020, at 11:19 UTC, a strong (M6.4), shallow earthquake occurred in the central region of Croatia. The epicentre was located near the town of Petrinja, about 40 km to the south of the capital, Zagreb. Here we present a preliminary analysis of the geodetic data (differential InSAR & GNSS) and preliminary estimates of the slip that occurred on the fault during the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. We picked InSAR data to invert for the seismic fault assuming linear rheology and Okada-type dislocation (rectangular) source with non-uniform slip. The interferograms show an asymmetric, four‐lobed pattern, centered on a NW‐SE oriented discontinuity that is in agreement with the right-lateral plane of the moment tensor solutions for the mainshock. We found that the Petrijna earthquake ruptured a segment of a strike-slip fault zone that is shorter (8 km) than average and with larger slip (~ 3 m). All parameters of the seismic fault are well constrained by InSAR modeling due to the full azimuthal coverage with both ascending and descending data of good quality. The fit to the fringes is better with a steep dip angle (76°) than with a purely vertical fault. The upper edge of the modeled fault is at a depth of ~1 km, this means that the slip drop from 3 to 0 m in the uppermost kilometer and our geodetic analysis cannot assess whether the fault reached the surface in some sections of the fault, however should this be the case, we expect ruptures at the surface in the range of 0.1 to 0 m for consistency with our model and the structure of the fringes pattern. In particular, preliminary modelling results with distributed fault-slip show that the slip reached a peak of more than 2.5 m at a depth of about 2 km. We also found that, differently from what reported in the European database of seismogenic sources (EDSF), the seismic fault dips westward instead of eastward. Additionally, the 2020 rupture and the InSAR mapped trace do not match the EDSF composite seismogenic fault surface trace. Kinematic analysis of GNSS waveforms at station BJEL (about 70-km east of the epicentre) revealed that horizontal ground motion reached 7-cm (peak-to-peak). The InSAR data revealed a 7 km of right-lateral afterslip on the NW-edge of the rupture, and 5 km to the south of the main fault rupture. In particular, the afterslip data on the NW edge of the rupture document the curved shape of the post-seismic deformation, that highlights the non-planarity of faults in nature and possibly indicating the existence of a ramp structure connecting to the neighboring segment towards north.</p&gt