Abstract
High resolution satellite imagery can provide detailed observation of ground surface with sub-meter resolution, but not so much widely used for geomorphologic study because of its costs. On October 12th, 2005, free images of Muzaffarabad, central town in seriously damaged area, and its surrounding area from IKONOS satellite before and after the earthquake were released on the web. It was followed by the release of free QuickBird imagery of affected area after the earthquake on the GoogleEarth which is the most popular satellite imagery viewing tool on the Internet. We interpreted these images to find the appearance of deformation of landform caused by the slip on faults, and detected some evidences of surface faulting such as flexure scarplet, emerged river bed and earthquake fault scarplet on the river terrace. These images are orthorectified and not ready for stereoscopic observation. However, we concluded them by using other supporting information, i.e. the comparison to pre-earthquake images and stereoscopic interpretation of lower resolution satellite images such as SPOT-5. The open discussions among researchers on the mailing list of Association of Japanese Geographers were also useful to certify them.
