Earthquakes in 3D
Geologists recently flew over the site of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Mexicali, Mexico, with a team from the National Center for Alrborne Laser Mapping, to capture the ruptures and warping of the surface caused by the underground fault. Using a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system, pulses were bounced between the aircraft and ground within a grid of 140 square miles, capturing a before-and-after view that was accurate to within inches. The image above and other post-quake LIDAR surveys were fed into the virtual reality facility at the University of California W.M. Keck Center to produce a three-dimensional rendering.
Photo: Michael Oskin et al., www.keckcaves.org
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