| This dissertation presents an array of remote sensing methods that can be utilized in deformation studies. The main focus is on the detection of creep and how it relates to earthquake hazard assessments. Chapter I outlines how both the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) can be used to detect small creep signatures near strike-slip faults. Chapter 2 presents the results from rapid-static GPS surveys of the dense Imperial Valley geodetic network. Chapter 3 investigates the southern San Andreas Fault, near the Salton Sea, where geodetic monuments are sparse. We utilize InSAR in this region and stack interferograms to isolate the creep signature along the fault. The use of permanent scatterers is introduced and its effects on improving image coherence are analyzed. Our photographic survey of permanent scatterers in the Coachella Valley/Salton Sea area is presented in Appendix 3A, while Chapter 4 summarizes various studies of creep on California faults. Research from my first two years is presented in Chapter 5, which details how one can determine the elastic thickness of oceanic lithosphere using shipboard bathymetry and satellite gravity. |
