<5cm Ground Resolution DEMs for the Atacama Fault System (Chile), Acquired With the Modular Airborne Camera System (MACS)

Kurzfassung

A primary step towards assessing time and size of future earthquakes is the identification of earthquake recurrence patterns in the existing seismic record. Geologic and geomorphic data are commonly analyzed for this purpose, reasoned by the lack of sufficiently long historical or instrumental seismic data sets. Until recently, those geomorphic data sets encompassed field observation, local total station surveys, and aerial photography. Over the last decade, LiDAR-based high-resolution topographic data sets became an additional powerful mean, contributing distinctly to a better understanding of earthquake rupture characteristics (e.g., single-event along-fault slip distribution, along-fault slip accumulation pattern) and their relation to fault geometric complexities. Typical shot densities of such data sets (e.g., airborne-LiDAR data along the San Andreas Fault) permit generation of digital elevation models (DEM) with <50 cm ground resolution, sufficient for depiction of meter-scale tectonic landforms. Identification of submeter-scale features is however prohibited by DEM resolution limitation. Here, we present a high-resolution topographic and visual data set from the Atacama fault system near Antofagasta, Chile. Data were acquired with Modular Airborne Camera System (MACS) - developed by the DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Berlin, Germany. The photogrammetrically derived DEM and True Ortho Images with <5cm ground resolution permit identification of very small-scale geomorphic features, thus enabling fault zone and earthquake rupture characterization at unprecedented detail. Compared to typical LiDAR-DEM, ground resolution is increased by an order of magnitude while the spatial extend of these data set is essentially the same. Here, we present examples of the <5cm resolution data set (DEM and visual results) and further explore resolution capabilities and potential with regards to the aforementioned tectono-geomorphic questions.