What role is NASA playing in the study of Los Angeles earthquake activity?
A new NASA radar project could help uncover clues to the timing of a mega-earthquake hitting Southern California. In other words, they hope to be able to predict “the big one.” Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena are using a very precise radar, strapped to the bottom of a jet flying 45,000 feet over California, to measure exact surface elevations along the southern-most section of the San Andreas fault. For the first time, scientists will get an extremely accurate picture of the earth’s surface near the fault. As earthquake-inducing stress builds up, they expect to be able to detect changes in elevations by overflying the area and taking new measurements. Scientists say they’ll map the San Andreas and adjacent faults, segment by segment. Then, periodically, they’ll repeat the same radar observations. Scientists hope to be able to measure deformations in the crust that might occur between observations. A special NASA jet will begin the overflights soon, and will even
Story Highlights • New NASA 3-D airborne radar to study California’s earthquake faults. • Radar sees below the surface to measure buildup and release of strain along faults. • Data can be used to guide rescue and damage assessment efforts after a quake. • LA basin, San Francisco Bay among areas to be studied. When a swarm of hundreds of small to moderate earthquakes erupted beneath California’s Salton Sea in March, sending spasms rumbling across the desert floor, it set off more than just seismometers. It also raised the eyebrows of quite a few concerned scientists. The reason: lurking underground, just a few kilometers to the northeast, lays a sleeping giant: the 160-kilometer-(100-mile) long southern segment of the notorious 1,300-kilometer- (800-mile) long San Andreas fault. Scientists were concerned that the recent earthquake swarm at the Salton Sea’s Bombay Beach could perhaps be the straw that broke the camel’s back, triggering “the big one,” a huge earthquake that could devastat
A new NASA radar project could help uncover clues to the timing of a mega-earthquake hitting Southern California. In other words, they hope to be able to predict “the big one.” Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena are using a very precise radar, strapped to the bottom of a jet flying 45,000 feet over California, to measure exact surface elevations along the southern-most section of the San Andreas fault. For the first time, scientists will get an extremely accurate picture of the earth’s surface near the fault. As earthquake-inducing stress builds up, they expect to be able to detect changes in elevations by overflying the area and taking new measurements. Scientists say they’ll map the San Andreas and adjacent faults, segment by segment. Then, periodically, they’ll repeat the same radar observations. Scientists hope to be able to measure deformations in the crust that might occur between observations. A special NASA jet will begin the overflights soon, and will even
