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Tectonic contraction across Los Angeles after removal of groundwater pumping effects

Nature volume 412, pages 812–815 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

After the 1987 Whittier Narrows1 and 1994 Northridge2 earthquakes revealed that blind thrust faults represent a significant threat to metropolitan Los Angeles3, a network of 250 continuously recording global positioning system (GPS) stations4,5 was deployed to monitor displacements associated with deep slip on both blind and surface faults. Here we augment this GPS data with interferometric synthetic aperture radar imagery to take into account the deformation associated with groundwater pumping and strike-slip faulting. After removing these non-tectonic signals, we are left with 4.4 mm yr-1 of uniaxial contraction across the Los Angeles basin, oriented N 36° E (perpendicular to the major strike-slip faults in the area). This indicates that the contraction is primarily accommodated on thrust faults6 rather than on the northeast-trending strike–slip faults. We have found that widespread groundwater and oil pumping obscures and in some cases mimics the tectonic signals expected from the blind thrust faults. In the 40-km-long Santa Ana basin, groundwater withdrawal and re-injection produces 12 mm yr-1 of long-term subsidence, accompanied by an unprecedented seasonal oscillation of 55 mm in the vertical direction and 7 mm horizontally.

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Figure 1: Seasonal deformation in the Santa Ana basin.
Figure 2: Long-term differential interferograms for metropolitan Los Angeles.
Figure 3: Comparison of groundwater fluctuations, InSAR range change, and detrended GPS time series.
Figure 4: Simulation of basin subsidence.
Figure 5: GPS residual velocities after removal of motion associated with strike–slip faults, superimposed on long-term uplift and subsidence features deduced from InSAR.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NASA Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program. Water well data was provided by the Orange County Water District. We acknowledge the Southern California Integrated GPS Network and its sponsors, the W. M. Keck Foundation, NASA, NSF, USGS and SCEC, for providing GPS data used in this study. GPS velocity data were provided by SOPAC with assistance from Y. Bock. We thank C. Wicks for his InSAR expertise, R. O. Castle, P. Hseih, J. Langbein, W. Prescott, F. Riley, J. C. Savage, R. Simpson and J. Shaw for reviews, and J. Shaw and A. Plesch for Puente Hills thrust fault data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, 94025, California, USA

    Gerald W. Bawden, Wayne Thatcher & Ross S. Stein

  2. United States Geological Survey, Pasadena, 91106, California, USA

    Ken W. Hudnut

  3. University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Gilles Peltzer

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  1. Gerald W. Bawden
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Correspondence to Gerald W. Bawden.

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Bawden, G., Thatcher, W., Stein, R. et al. Tectonic contraction across Los Angeles after removal of groundwater pumping effects. Nature 412, 812–815 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35090558

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