June 8th, 2015

NSF is celebrating the International Year of Light with weekly images and information about NSF-funded light-based research. Its June 5 post centers on the 3D laser map 'illuminates' that earthquake faults. ASU's Ramon Arrowsmith contributed to this.
A team of NSF-funded scientists from the United States, Mexico and China used laser-based LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology to obtain some of the most comprehensive before-and-after pictures of an earthquake zone, using data from the magnitude 7.2 event that struck near Mexicali, Mexico, in April 2010.
The Mexican government had mapped the area with LIDAR prior to the earthquake in 2006.
When the earthquake occurred, Michael Oskin, from the University of California Davis, and Ramon Arrowsmith, at Arizona State University, received NSF rapid-response funding to carry out an immediate aerial survey to compare the results.