Processes of the displacement field change of the 2009 April 6 M_W6.3 L'Aquila earthquake using persistent scatterer and small baseline methods

Using a time series method that combines both the persistent scatterer and small baseline approaches, we analyzed 9 scenes Envisat ASAR data over the L'Aquila earthquake, and obtained a Shocke's displacement field and its evolution processes. The results show that: (1) Envisat ASAR clearly detected the whole processes of displacement field of the L'Aquila earthquake, and distinct variations at different stages of the displacement field. (2) Pre-seismic creep displacement → displacement mutation when faulting → constantly slowed down after the earthquake. (3) The area of the strongest deformation and ground rupture was a low-lying oval depression region to the southeast. Surface faulting within a zone of about 22 km × 14 km, with an orientation of 135°, occurred along the NW-striking and SW-dipping Paganica-S. Demetrio normal fault. (4) In analyzing an area of about 54 km × 59 km, bounded by north-south axis to the epicenter, the displacement field has significant characteristics of a watershed: westward of the epicenter shows uplift with maximum of 130 mm in line-of-sight (LOS), and east of the epicenter was a region with 220 mm of maximum subsidence in the LOS, concentrating on the rupture zone, the majority of which formed in the course of faulting and subsequence.