Slow-moving landslides triggered by the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake,
New Zealand: a new InSAR phase-gradient based time-series approach
Abstract
Earthquake-triggered slow-moving landslides are not well studied mainly
due to lack of high-resolution in-situ geodetic observations both in
time and space. Satellite-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar
(InSAR) has shown potential in landslides applications, however, it is
challenging to detect earthquake-triggered slow-moving landslides over
large areas due to the effects of post-seismic tectonic deformations,
atmospheric delays, and other spatially propagated errors (e.g.,
decorrelation noises caused unwrapped errors). Here, we present a novel
InSAR phase-gradient-based time-series approach to detect slow-moving
landslides that triggered by the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake. 21
earthquake-triggered large (> 0.1 km 2) slow-moving
landslides are detected and studied. Our results reveal decaying
characteristics of the temporal evolutions of these landslides, that
averagely after 3.9 years since the earthquake, their postseismic
velocity will decay 90% and close to pre-seismic level. Our study opens
new perspectives for the research of the mass balance of earthquakes and
helps reduce associated hazards.