Determination of the displacements along the Maergaichaka fault, using remote sensing data, Tibet, China

ERS-l/ERS-2 synthetic aperture radar interferometry and Landsat TM was used to study the Maergaichaka fault where Manyi earthquake occured on Nov. 8, 1997 in Tibet, China. We derived an accurate digital elevation model(DEM) and the deformation interferogram of the Manyi earthquake using a tandem ERS-l/ERS-2 image pair and modeled the left- lateral slip of the fault in three dimension using half infinite elastic model. Detail geological and geomorphological offsets revalued using river valleys and structural markers on the Landsat ETM images at different scales are used to constrain the localization, total displacement at the Maergaichaka fault, Tibet China. The river network morphology associated with small rivers is offset by several meters to several kilometers along the maergaichaka fault. Our results indicates that the leftlateral slip of the fault has accommodated the shortening of the India-Eurasian lithospheric plates.