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| - | ** Monitoring Ground Deformation from the Wooded Island Earthquake Swarm near Hanford, Washington** | + | ====Monitoring Ground Deformation from the Wooded Island Earthquake Swarm near Hanford, Washington==== |
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| - | **Introduction and Background** | + | ===Introduction and Background=== |
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| + | An earthquake swarm began early 2009 at Wooded Island on the Columbia River, located on the southeast border of the Hanford | ||
| + | Site in Washington State. Hanford is located in the the desert of southeastern Washington in the Columbia Basin within the | ||
| + | Columbia River flood basalt flows. The earthquakes are a great cause for concern in this area because Hanford is home | ||
| + | to the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and also stores 60% of the high-level radioactive waste in | ||
| + | the U.S. (Department of Ecology). | ||
| + | |||
| + | In a previous study conducted by Wicks et al. (2011), approximately 1500 shallow (depth < 1 km) earthquakes ranging | ||
| + | between magnitude -0.3 to 3 occurred near Wooded Island. They analyzed interferograms developed from SAR scenes spanning | ||
| + | between February 2009 to October 2009 and found that the swarm was most likely caused by aseismic slip on a shallow thrust fault | ||
| + | and a near-horizontal fault about 0.5 km below the surface. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Proposed Work=== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Clustered shallow earthquakes continue to occur at Wooded Island. Since October of 2009, 294 earthquakes have contributed | ||
| + | to the swarm. My project will focus primarily on the swarm activity between the date of the previous study and the end of | ||
| + | 2011 when the highest magnitude earthquakes (M3.3 - M3.7) took place. I will use SAR data to produce interferograms of | ||
| + | the swarm site to measure the ground deformation that has taken place since the end of Wicks’ study and to look for | ||
| + | migration of the deformation toward areas of concern such as the Hanford nuclear site. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Data=== | ||
| + | |||
| + | I will create interferograms from SAR scenes collected by ENVISAT (ENVI) and the European Remote Sensing satellite(ERS-2). | ||
| + | ENVI scenes were collected along track 70 between January and July 2010. ERS-2 scenes along track 70 collected were in January | ||
| + | and February of 2011. Additional ENVI scenes, collected along track 27 between June and December 2011, will be used to observe | ||
| + | the deformation from the highest magnitude earthquakes in the swarm (M3.3 - M3.7). My intention is to produce a minimum of four | ||
| + | interferograms spanning from January to June 2010, July 2010 to February 2011, January 2010 to February 2011, and June 2011 to | ||
| + | December 2011. There was a limited amount of SAR data available for this site. Scenes along track 70 were only available | ||
| + | through February 2011 so I will be unable to create an interferogram that spans all of 2010 and 2011. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Project Significance=== | ||
| + | |||
| + | Earthquake swarms at Wooded Island are cause for concern because they are shallow. Moderate magnitude, shallow | ||
| + | earthquakes have the potential to cause damage because the hypocenters are located close to the surface (Wicks et al., 2013) | ||
| + | where moderate shaking can easily be felt. Ground motion and deformation caused by the Wooded Island swarm should continue to | ||
| + | be monitored because of its close proximity to the Hanford nuclear site. Continued deformation could increase the risk of | ||
| + | radioactive contamination by compromising barriers containing toxic waste and allowing it leak into the groundwater. | ||
| + | |||
