Monitoring of the Sagaing fault in Myanmar using GPS observations

Abstract

The objectives of the research were to analyze the Myanmar cGPS network observations to obtain a moving rate and direction of every cGPS point by using the GAMIT and GLOBK software package and to investigate the co-seismic moving rate due to the earthquake by using the TRACK kinematic processing program. The study observed four years of continuous GPS data between 2011 and 2014. It was found that the east side of the Sagaing fault the moving toward the southeast with the average rate of approximately 32-40 mm/yr and the other side of the fault the moving to the northeast with the rate of about 31-35 mm/yr. For the co-seismic study were observed at 2 stations of the Myanmar cGPS network, associated with the 2012 M6.8 Thebeikkyin earthquake. The GPS stations are located 50-60 km away from the epicenter. The GPS observation data clearly showed co-seismic ground displacements. According to the kinematic processing results, the GPS station from the east side of the Sagaing fault immediately moves to the southward, offset rate is 15 cm. Other side of the GPS station north offset is 3 cm. This study was compared the kinematic processing results for co-seismic movement rate and GAMIT/GLOBK time series results, which showed fairly good agreements. From this study, it can be concluded that the Sagaing fault using the GPS observation, the Sagaing fault’s tectonic activities can be monitored. This analysis method is useful in many ways to make a research on monitoring the Sagaing fault tectonic actives in Myanmar.