Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have made a significant breakthrough in geophysics with the development of a new computational technique that enables researchers to visualize Earth's rocky interior using the surface's deformation. This method, termed "deformation imaging," offers results akin to seismic imaging but with an added benefit: it directly measures the rigidity of the Earth's crust and mantle, a property key to understanding earthquakes and other large-scale geological phenomena.

Simone Puel, the pioneer of this method during his graduate studies at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences, emphasized the importance of rigidity in geoscience. "Material properties like rigidity are critical to understand the different processes that occur in a subduction zone or in earthquake science in general," Puel said, as stated by the University of Texas News. His approach has been put into practice in a recent study highlighted in June's Science Advances, which employed GPS data from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake to image the subsurface to depths of around 100 kilometers.

This imaging revealed not only the intricate layout of tectonic plates but also a previously undetected deep magma reservoir thought to be feeding the volcanic systems along the Pacific Ring of Fire—offering new insights into the area's geological dynamics solely from surface data. According to the University of Texas News, the intricacies of this method involve a computer model simplifying the Earth's crust as an elastic material with variable density in three dimensions, producing a 3D subsurface image based on surface deformations registered by GPS sensors.

Additionally, NASA's forthcoming NISAR satellite, in partnership with the Indian Space Research Organization, is poised to utilize this imaging method to map Earth's surface in high resolution every 12 days. This could lead to major revelations about some of Earth's most volatile geological areas, according to Thorsten Becker, a professor at the Jackson School and study co-author. Tracking the structural changes in earthquake faults throughout their seismic cycles may soon be a continuous process thanks to this satellite's capabilities.