THERMAL REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES FOR STUDYING EARTHQUAKE ANOMALIES IN 2013 BALOCHISTAN EARTHQUAKES

Abstract

The use of satellite technologies in remote sensing in recent years takes place in pre and post monitoring of earthquakes, especially in monitoring thermal anomalies before the earthquake. This paper discusses the thermal anomalies of the 2013 Balochistan Earthquakes that occurred in southwestern Pakistan on 24 September 2013 with a 7.7-moment magnitude. The earthquake caused six significant aftershocks. The strongest one occurred on 28 September 2013 with a moment magnitude of 6.8. In this paper, we use Landsat-8 satellite imagery to analyze the thermal behavior in the 2013 Balochistan earthquake and its biggest aftershock that occurred on 28 September 2013. The thermal behavior was analyzed using the Land Surface Temperature algorithm for Landsat 8 images. For this purpose, we used seven satellite images, two before the main earthquake, one two days after the main earthquake and two days before the strongest aftershock, and one image after the earthquakes. According to the results, unusual warming was noticed near the fault before the strongest aftershock. The results were compared with data from the Pakistan Meteorology Department and other studies related to the 2013 Balochistan Earthquakes.