Monitoring the geodynamic behaviour of earthquake using Landsat 8-OLI time series data: case of Gorkha and Imphal

Abstract. Prediction of earthquake in advance is really a challenging task for the scientific community till now. But research results from various scientists regarding lineament extraction using satellite imageries help us to way forward for earthquake monitoring study. For the present study, Landsat 8 OLI Time series data analyzed by integrating four different remote sensing and GIS software’s for automatic lineament extraction, its change, including lineament lengths and directions study by creating rose diagrams and finally vertical surface transect profile curve drawing. Two recent major earthquakes (in different geological settings Gorkha of Nepal 7.8 M_w and Imphal, Manipur of Eastern India 6.8 M_w) epicenter based single tile and corresponding same temporal scenes (three for before and one for after quake respectively) were considered for each case to perform lineament extraction, length variation and vertical surface transect profile change analysis. The research results witnessed major variations in lineament number, lineament length and its trends. The major trends found in an ESE-WNW, N-E, N-S, E-W, NNE-SSW directions and ESE-WSW, ESE-WNW, NE-SW on pre-earthquake scenes compared to post earthquake ESE-WNW, NE-SW, NNE-SSW were found for Gorkha, and ESE-WSW for Imphal regions respectively and in both cases, it was observed that the lineation trends return to its earlier status after an earthquake strike. The results obtained using the automated and geo-integrated methods compared cross validation with each other showed our method worked practically for earthquake monitoring and one can apply this new novel combined approach to predict the probable earthquake occurrence in advance just a few days before it strikes.