Small Grants for Exploratory Research: Collaborative Project: Rapid Response to the November 14, 2001 Kunlun Fault Earthquake

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EAR-0209434/EAR-0209892Shen Zheng-Kang/FreymuellerScientist from the University of Alaska, University of California Los Angeles, and the China Seismological Bureau are carrying out a a rapid response to the November 14, 2001 Mw~7.9 Kunlun fault earthquake in Tibet. This earthquake provides a unique opportunity to measure the postseismic deformation of an M~8 earthquake that occurred within a pre-existing geodetic network in which relative site velocities are known to about 1 mm/yr., Three continuously recording GPS sites near the rupture and a fourth about 150 km away were established one week after the event by the China Seismological Bureau. Also, 17 existing and new GPS sites along the Qinghai-Tibet highway were surveyed in December, 2001. A second field campaign is extending GPS network westward from the Qinghai-Tibet highway, adding new sites along the fault on either side of surface rupture in the near field. This survey is repeating measurements at all of the sites surveyed in November-December, providing the initial postseismic results. These measurements will lead to a better understanding of the rheological structure of the exceptionally thick northern Tibetan crust as well as the postseismic processes triggered by such a large event.