DInSAR investigation in the Pärvie endglacial fault region, Lapland, Sweden

• Published in: International Journal of Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Mantovani, Matteo, Scherneck, Hans-Georg
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Geophysics; Fennoscandia; Neotectonics; Radar remote sensing; Earth surface deformation; Postglacial faults; Kiruna; Ice Sheet; Lapland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2013.843871; https://research.chalmers.se/en/publication/184675

Northern Fennoscandia bears witness to the Pleistocene glaciation in the form of a seriesof large faults that have been shown to have ruptured immediately after the retreat ofthe ice sheet, about 9500 years ago. The largest one, known as the Pärvie fault, consistsof a 155 km long linear series of fault scarps forming north–northeast-trending, thatstretch west of Kiruna, Lapland. End-glacial intra-plate faults of this extent are veryrare in the continental crust and the Pärvie system represents one of the major faultzone structures of this type in the world. Seismological evidence shows that there isstill noticeable seismic activity, roughly one event of magnitude 2 per year that can beattributed to the fault. Nevertheless assessing its state of activity is a difficult task dueto the extent and remoteness of the area. This study is aimed at the determination ofcrustal motion around the Pärvie fault zone using the differential inter-ferometric syntheticaperture radar (DInSAR) technique, based on images acquired with the EuropeanSpace Agency (ESA) satellites European Remote Sensing (ERS) 1, ERS-2, and theEnvironmental Satellite (ENVISAT). We present results achieved in terms of deformationof the crystalline bedrock along different sectors of the fault where high levels ofcoherence were obtained, even from image pairs several years apart. This finding doesnot exclude deformation in other segments, as observing conditions are not always asfavourable in terms of data availability.