LOS ANGELES, March 6 (UPI) -- A NASA scientist says an earthquake in Iran is helping researchers understand how seismic forces deform the ground.
Eric J. Fielding, a geophysicist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said colleagues studying the 6.6 magnitude 2003 earthquake that killed 30,000 in Bam, Iran, found only minor cracking.They then pulled up satellite radar images taken by a European Space Agency satellite. The images showed a finger of land was gradually sinking. It was found to be right above the area where the buried fault had slipped, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
The findings are published in the journal Nature.
A U.S. Geological Survey researcher said information from satellites and GPS monitoring stations have the potential to help scientists identify which buried faults are active, the newspaper said.
