SCEC Award Number 25103
Proposal Category Individual Research Project (Single Investigator / Institution)
Proposal Title Integrated geodetic study of creep events on the Imperial Fault
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Kathryn Materna University of Colorado, Boulder
SCEC Milestones A1-2, C2-1 SCEC Groups Geodesy, SDOT, FARM
Report Due Date 03/15/2026 Date Report Submitted No report submitted
Project Abstract
 This study will investigate creep events on Southern California’s Imperial fault (IF) using geodetic data to reveal the high-resolution time-dependence and kinematics of aseismic slip. The results of the study will allow us to determine: 1) if creep events on the Imperial fault are geographically segmented, 2) if creep events are temporally correlated with one another or with seasonal hydrological loading, 3) whether the depth of creep has changed over the past 10 years, and 4) what are the scaling relationships between creep event length, depth, duration, and slip. We will also investigate new evidence of centimeter-scale aseismic creep events accommodating dip-slip in the Mesquite basin. These findings will help us understand the slip behavior of the Imperial fault system in terms of its strength and frictional dynamics, increasing our understanding of the stress state and rheology of one of the most active faults in California.
Intellectual Merit This study will investigate creep events on Southern California’s Imperial fault (IF) using geodetic data to reveal the high-resolution time-dependence and kinematics of aseismic slip. The results of the study will allow us to determine: 1) if creep events on the Imperial fault are geographically segmented, 2) if creep events are temporally correlated with one another or with seasonal hydrological loading, 3) whether the depth of creep has changed over the past 10 years, and 4) what are the scaling relationships between creep event length, depth, duration, and slip. The relationship between creep and seismic hazard is important to advancing knowledge in earthquake science.
Broader Impacts This project resulted in the training of a first-year graduate student in satellite radar analysis. The graduate student is now responsible for training others in the lab in similar skills, which helps the graduate student gain confidence in technical skills and helps the lab continue to generate new knowledge.
Project Participants Graduate student M. Morow Tan, Prof. Roger Bilham, and postdoc Dan Gittins, all at CIRES and CU Boulder
Exemplary Figure Figure 1: Interferogram of the February 3-
15, 2023 creep event on the W. Mesquite
Fault. The amplitude of the profile A-B is
controlled by magnitude of slip, while
depth affects the far-field profile.
Linked Publications

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