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posted by janrinok on Tuesday September 02 2014, @11:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the to-see-the-unseen dept.

The BBC has an article about the new ESA satellite system called Sentinel (Part of the ESA's Copernicus Earth Observation program)

On August 24th, a Magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Napa California. Researchers have been walking across Napa in recent days to try to record exactly where the deep rupture broke through to the surface. In places, this is very evident from buckled roads and fractured kerbstones. But there are significant segments of the fault failure that have no obvious surface expression, and for these portions scientists hope to gain useful insights from the new Sentinel interferogram.

This is important information for understanding future seismic hazards and guiding infrastructure planning.

Sentinel 1A uses radar interferometry to measure ground displacement from orbit. Launched earlier this summer, the new satellite has used before and after data to Map the ground movements caused by the NAPA earthquake.

COMET Director, Tim Wright, from University of Leeds said, "This successful demonstration of Sentinel-1A marks the beginning of a new era for our ability to map earthquakes from space".

Sentinel-1A passes over the same spot on the ground every 12 days. However, once its identical twin, Sentinel-1B, is launched in 2016, this will be cut to just six days, so that changes can be mapped even faster.

Related Stories

Northern California in State of Emergency Following 6.1 Earthquake 23 comments

Sunday morning at 3:20am, an earthquake rated 6.1 by the USGS — the strongest California has experienced in 25 years — struck at a depth of 6.7 miles (10.7km) in Northern California's Napa Valley. The governor declared a state of emergency for Napa county as it exhausted its resources fighting fires, searching for trapped survivors, and handling other aspects of the aftermath.

Around 120 people sustained minor or moderate injuries, and CNN reports at least 6 are in critical condition. Approximately 50 ruptured gas mains caused at least six fires, one of which destroyed several mobile homes with firefighters hindered by the loss of dozens of water mains to breaks.

Lorraine Balbi, 67, said she narrowly escaped the flames that engulfed her unit at the mobile park shortly after the earthquake hit at 3:20 a.m. ... She said she heard her neighbor screaming her name and looked out her front door to see flames climbing from her unit’s gas main. She grabbed her dog, her cellphone and cellphone charger. Minutes later, her home was destroyed. “The house is gone. The car is gone,” she said, her voice breaking. “Everything.”

On the brighter side, while over 25,000 homes in Napa and neighboring Sonoma Counties lost power and roads buckled up to two feet, it thankfully doesn't appear to have damaged any of the bridges or caused any deaths (yet). However, three of Napa's historic buildings were among the 21 that sustained severe damage, 20 cars were buried by a collapsed carport. Regional wineries were still assessing damages as of Sunday afternoon.

Wikipedia's "2014 Napa Earthquake" article is being updated live as more information is released.

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  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by richtopia on Wednesday September 03 2014, @02:24AM

    by richtopia (3160) on Wednesday September 03 2014, @02:24AM (#88730) Homepage Journal

    North America Pacific Area? Never Assert Plural Acronyms? Napa An't Pleasant Abbreviation?

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @02:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @02:31AM (#88735)

      Not Another Pedantic Asshat?