The University of Iowa and the U.S. Geological Survey have developed a system to help save lives by characterizing fault lines within 24 hours of an earthquake.

The technique uses Global Positioning Satellite data. William Barnhart, UI assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, used measurements from the magnitude 6.0 South Napa, Calif. earthquake on Aug. 24 to create a three-dimensional map of how the ground surface moved in response to the earthquake. The map was made without using traditional rapid response instruments, such as seismometers, which may not provide the same level of detail.

“By having the 3D knowledge of the earthquake itself, we can make predictions of the ground shaking, without instruments to record that ground shaking, and then can make estimates of what the human and infrastructure impacts will be – in terms of both fatalities and dollars,” Barnhart said.

The study was published in the March/April edition of Seismological Research Letters.

Barnhart said the technique will be most useful in the developing world. The catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 is the perfect example for the usefulness of this kind of tool, Barnhart says. The earthquake struck right under the capital city of Port Au Prince, killing hundreds of thousands of people and costing billions of dollars in aid.

The modeling can help get assistance in place more quickly, Barnhart said.