Hydrodynamics of landsliding and aquifer systems revealed by satellite radar interferometry
Xie Hu
UC Berkeley
- Date & Time
- Location
- Building 3, Rambo Auditorium
- Summary
Ground deformation is usually a hydrologic response to groundwater processes, expressing its diversity in the length and rate in time, as well as the magnitude and distribution in space. Satellite radar interferometry allows us to resolve the deformation with mm-level accuracy in a range of hundreds of kilometers per acquisition, and the repeatability of several to tens of days, which effectively advance the incorporation with the available hydrological data sets such as precipitation and water levels. In this talk, I will focus on a) some hydrologic-triggered landsliding systems in western United Stated. Our results reveal the complex three-dimensional configurations of the landslide mass, how the time variable motion relates to rainfall, how the surface velocity during sliding changes in space, and how the ground surface subsides slightly in weeks prior to downslope sliding in the case of Crescent landslide, WA. And b), the aquifer systems underneath the metropolitan Salt Lake City, Utah. Our results show the time-dependent ground deformation highlighted by a long-term uplift and seasonal variations that can be correlated with water level changes. Based on that, we investigate the sensitivity of the aquifer skeleton in response to the persistent groundwater recharge decades ago, the stain rate of the vertical shearing groundwater reservoir, the amount of water stored in the confined aquifers, and the basin-wide hydraulic diffusivity. Anthropogenic land subsidence has been also characterized using statistical and geoengineering models.
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