Imaging Active Tectonics with InSAR and Lidar

Bruce Douglas (Indiana University-Bloomington)
Gareth Funning (University of California-Riverside)

This material was developed and reviewed through the GETSI curricular materials development process.

This material was developed and reviewed through the GETSI curricular materials development process. This rigorous, structured process includes:

team-based development to ensure materials are appropriate across multiple educational settings.
multiple iterative reviews and feedback cycles through the course of material development with input to the authoring team from both project editors and an external assessment team.
real in-class or field camp/course testing of materials in multiple courses with external review of student assessment data.
multiple reviews to ensure the materials meet the GETSI materials rubric which codifies best practices in curricular development, student assessment and pedagogic techniques.
created or reviewed by content experts for accuracy of the science content.

This page first made public: Dec 14, 2015

Summary

In this module, students use lidar and InSAR data to understand the earthquake cycle, from individual earthquakes to landscape-forming timescales. This is motivated by consideration of earthquake hazards, specifically the vulnerability of the infrastructural lifelines upon which society depends. Five units are provided, including lecture materials, discussions, paper exercises, group activities that can be deployed either as gallery walks or computer exercises, an exercise for modeling InSAR data using an online tool, and a culminating assignment. These materials are intended for inclusion in upper-level undergraduate classes in structural geology, tectonics or geophysics.

Show more about Online Teaching suggestions

Strengths of the Module

This module introduces students to new techniques for investigating the surface manifestation of normal, thrust, and strike slip faults and the impact each of these different types of earthquakes can have on societal support infrastructure. Use of these new geodetic data sets and the information provided by analysis of this data creates a much more dynamic and rich environment for the students to work in; this, in turn, will lead to an enhanced and nuanced understanding of faults, faulting, and changes to the near surface environment that impact humans. The students will be exposed to analytical techniques and will have the opportunity to work with this new data through digital technology that is typically only available to graduate students or professionals.