New System Put into Service to Process Nepal Earthquake Data
Technology Infused: On April 25, 2015, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the mountainous nation of Nepal, causing widespread destruction and loss of life. Known as the Gorkha Earthquake, the event was the largest earthquake to strike the country in over 80 years. During the initial response to the quake, scientists processed data manually, developing images called interferograms one at a time to show deformations that occurred on the Earth’s surface as a result of the earthquake. This interferogram shows part of the very large deformation caused by the 2015magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal, including the capital city of Kathmandu.The color contours, or fringes, are 2.8 cm (1.1 inches) each and reflect thesurface deformation caused by fault slip at depths of 12-16 km. The area justnorth of Katmandu moved upward about 1.4 m due to the earthquake.(Credit: Hook Hua, JPL) Within a week, the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) project—a collaboration between...