SCEC Award Number 19226 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Proposal (Data Gathering and Products)
Proposal Title Geomorphology as an indicator of Fault Damage
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Emily Brodsky University of California, Santa Cruz Noah Finnegan University of California, Santa Cruz
Other Participants Kelian Dascher-Cousineau (Graduate Student)
SCEC Priorities 3e, 3d, 3a SCEC Groups FARM, Geology, SDOT
Report Due Date 04/30/2020 Date Report Submitted 05/31/2020
Project Abstract
 Damage zones are recognized in SCEC as an important element of moving beyond the elastic description of fault rupture, yet our ability to compare damage zones across a wide array of faults is limited. We are working to develop a remote sensing method to study damage zones by capitalizing on a geomorphic signature in airborne LiDAR data. Damage is expected to increase rock erodibility. The common occurrence of long, linear valleys along faults suggests that fault damage has a geomorphic signature that can be used to develop a comparative database of damage. We are currently investigating a suite of metrics that may be useful for parameterizing these valleys and associating them with the damage zone of faults.
Intellectual Merit This work explores a new use of geomorphology to measure the extent of fault damage. Fault zone damage is a fundamental, and poorly resolved, feature of fault zones that influences rupture and seismic radiation. Previous work has been limited by the lack of remote sensing tools available to measure damage. Using the high resolution LiDAR data may solve this problem.
Broader Impacts This grant supported the education of graduate student Kelian Dascher-Cousineau.
Exemplary Figure
Figure 1. Map of the Leaona Valley, Little Rock, and Wrightwood sections of the San Andreas. Faults shown in red are derived from the quaternary fault dataset. Ground truth measurements with the corresponding estimates of linear fracture spacing are indicated with circles. Bottom Left Inset: Comparison of ground truth measurement to remote measurements. Note that these generally correlate well with each other.