Displacement field and fault model for the September 7, 1999 Athens earthquake inferred from ERS2 satellite radar interferometry

On September 7, 1999, a moderate (M-n = 5.9) normal faulting earthquake occ urred in the northwest of Athens (Hellas) causing heavy damages and casualt ies. Using interferometric combinations of ERS2 SAR images, we analyzed the coseismic deformation field. Two fringes are observed south of the Fill mo untain, up to the coastline of the Elefsis gulf. They correspond to 56 mm i ncrease in slant range. Modeling the earthquake as a dislocation in an elas tic half-space, we inverted the interferometric data to assess the fault lo cation and geometry and the amplitude of the coseismic slip. The model sugg ests similar to 300 mm slip on an 18 km long blind fault composed of two pi eces. The intersection of the fault plane with the Earth surface is located in the Fill mountain with a similar to N120 degrees orientation.