New imaging technique uses Earth's deformed surface to reveal rock interiors | Jackson School of Geosciences

July 2, 2024

A GPS station atop the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin used GPS networks to image the interior of the planet. Copyright: UNAVCO/National Science Foundation

Surface mapping technologies such as GPS, radar, and laser scanning have long been used to measure features on Earth’s surface. Now, a new computational technique developed at the University of Texas at Austin is allowing scientists to use these techniques to peer inside the planet.

The new technique, which the researchers call “deformation imaging,” produces results similar to seismic imaging but provides direct information about the stiffness of the planet’s crust and mantle. This property is essential for understanding how earthquakes and other large-scale geological processes work, said Simone Boyle, who developed the method for a research project at the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics while a graduate student at the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences.

“Material properties such as stiffness are critical to understanding the different processes that occur in subduction zones or in seismology in general,” Boyle said. “When these properties are combined with other techniques such as seismology, electromagnetism or gravity, it is possible that we can produce a more comprehensive mechanical model of an earthquake in a way that has never been done before.”

Boyle, now a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology, published the theory behind his method earlier this year. A new study, published in June in the journal Science Advances, shows the theory in action. It used GPS data from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan to image the Earth’s interior to a depth of about 100 kilometers.

A diagram showing the rigidity of the Earth's crust beneath Japan. The image shows the boundary where the Japanese continental plate (the large dark red spot) collides with the much stiffer oceanic plate (the dark blue spot). The smaller dark red spots in the center of the image are likely magma systems that feed Japan's volcanoes (red triangles). The image was created using data collected using a new deformation imaging technique developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. Image credit: Simon Boyle

The image reveals the tectonic plates and volcanic system beneath the Japanese portion of the Pacific Ring of Fire, including a region of low solidity believed to be a deep reservoir of magma feeding the system – the first time such a reservoir has been detected using only surface information.

This method is based on the fact that the Earth's crust is a mixture of rocky materials with different elastic properties. Some parts are more elastic, and others are more rigid. This causes the crust to contract and expand unevenly. During an earthquake, for example, the Earth shakes in a way that reflects what it is made of, leaving the surface distorted in obvious ways.

To translate this uneven deformation into an image of the Earth’s subsurface, the researchers built a computer model that treated the Earth as if it were a simplified elastic material, allowing its elastic strength to change in three dimensions. The model then calculated the stiffness of the Earth’s subsurface based on how much the GPS sensors moved relative to each other during an earthquake. The result is a 3D image of the Earth’s interior based on changes at the surface.

But there are some caveats. Although the model produces a grid of 12.5 million data points, the image is not as clear as seismic tomography, the most common way to image the Earth’s interior. However, it does directly measure stiffness, an important metric for building more sophisticated models of the Earth.

Another advantage of the new method is that it can use measurements taken by satellites. These include NASA’s NISAR spacecraft, a joint mission with the Indian Space Research Organization, which will map the entire globe at high resolution every 12 days.

Using the new technology could provide important insights into some of the world’s most geologically dangerous regions, said Thorsten Becker, a professor at Jackson College and co-author of the study. By continuously mapping the Earth’s surface, the satellite will allow scientists to track structural changes in earthquake faults as they progress through the earthquake cycle.

The new method could be an important step toward building digital twins of Earth, said co-author Omar Ghattas, a professor in the University of Texas Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and the University of Texas A&M’s Odden Institute for Computational Engineering and Science. These complex computer models continually improve themselves by identifying where new observations need to be made and then absorbing the new data.

“As the models get better, as the data gets richer and more informative, we might be able to get to the point where we can start saying something about earthquake predictability,” he said.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. Other co-authors include Dongyu Liu, a computational geoscientist at the University of Toronto, and Humberto Villa, a research scientist at the Udine Institute.

For more information, please contact: Anton Caputo, Jackson School of Geosciences, 512-232-9623; Konstantino Panagopulos, University of Texas Institute of Geophysics.

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