Activation of Fault Structures South of the La Habra Earthquake Rupture As Evidenced By UAVSAR Imaging

Abstract:

The 28 March, 2014 M 5.2 La Habra earthquake occurred on a northeast striking, northwest dipping left-lateral oblique thrust fault at the northeastern margin of the LA Basin, where regional right-lateral shear is accommodated by major northwest trending faults of the Peninsular Ranges, and north-south shortening is accommodated by north-dipping thrust faults and east-west trending folds of the Transverse Ranges. The La Habra mainshock location and focal mechanism is northwest of but sub-parallel to the Puente Hills thrust fault. Relocated seismicity highlights a northeast-trending rupture plane consistent with the magnitude and focal mechanism of the event. NASA’s UAVSAR L-Band radar instrument was flown for north and south looking lines before the earthquake on 22 January 2014. The north looking line was reflown three days after the earthquake on 31 March, 2014, and the south looking line was reflown a week later on 4 April 2014. The UAVSAR Repeat Pass Interferogram (RPI) products show deformation consistent with the location of the mainshock beneath the town of La Habra. The results also show considerable aseismic northward horizontal deformation with minor uplift in the West Coyote Hills, south of the relocated seismicity. Inversion of the combined interferograms is consistent with south dipping low-angle (7°) shallow slip that corresponds to bedding plane attitudes and a mapped unconformity. The entire West Coyote Hills show 37 mm of modeled northward slip with an additional 34 mm of modeled slip concentrated near the Coyote Hills Park northeast of the intersection of Rosecrans Avenue and North Gilbert Street. A narrow band of shortening was also observed with UAVSAR, and confirmed with on-the-ground field observations, at the Trojan Way Kink Band, nearly one fault dimension southwest of the main rupture.