Horizontal coseismic deformation of the 2003 Bam (Iran) earthquake measured from SPOT‐5 THR satellite imagery

On 26 December 2003, a destructive Mw 6.5 earthquake occurred in Kerman province, Iran, killing more than 30,000 people around the ancient city of Bam. We map the fault zone and determine the slip distribution using sub‐pixel correlation of images taken by the SPOT‐5 THR sensor before and after the main shock. Our results show that the surface displacement occurred on a blind fault oriented N174 and located South of Bam. A 15 km along‐strike profile depicts a distribution with a maximum displacement of 1.2 ± 0.15 m near the centre of the fault. The mean slip that we infer (∼0.77 ± 0.05 m) is much higher than the ground displacement measured in the field (∼0.2 m). We suggest that field‐measured displacements are underestimated due to slip accommodation within an 500 m wide shear zone. Furthermore, we demonstrate for the first time the relevancy of 2.5 m SPOT‐5 THR images for sub‐pixel ground displacement measurements.