Coseismic ground deformation of the November 26, 2019 M6.4 earthquake of Durrës, Albania estimated by DInSAR

Abstract

An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 occurred in Albania on November 26, 2019 at 03:54:12 (local time). The epicenter of the earthquake was about 20 km from the coastal city of Durrës. The earthquake caused severe damage. In order to estimate the ground deformation associated with the earthquake, a pair of Sentinel-1 radar images was analysed by Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) technique. A differential interferogram was formed using the two Sentinel-1 Single Look Complex (SLC) images. The flattened and filtered differential interferogram was unwrapped and converted to ground displacement. The results show that in the area of the epicenter the ground is uplifted at a maximum of 8 cm along the radar line-of-sight (LOS). The earthquake could be related with under thrusting of Adria microplate or fault processes within the under thrusted Adria microplate itself. Further monitoring by satellite imagery is needed to investigate the post-seismic ground deformation in the area.