We recently came across this article about a map from NASA that shows the deformation caused by the recent earthquake that struck Nepal.
The above map can be downloaded and viewed in Google Earth using this KMZ file.
The movement being measured is the overall vertical movement of the ground as a result of the earthquake. If I read the map correctly, the ground moved upwards with maximum movement at a point just North of Kathmandu. In the above screenshot we have turned on the ‘Earthquakes’ layer (found in the Gallery layer) in Google Earth which shows that the centre of the initial magnitude 7.8 earthquake was further to the North West (the largest Earthquake icon).
DigitalGlobe captured satellite imagery of the region soon after the earthquake and has made it available for free to emergency responders under a Public License for Humanitarian purposes.
It is possible to see the imagery on DigitalGlobe’s website and you can help with the crowdsourcing campaign on the Tomnod website.
We have not yet found a way to download the imagery for viewing in Google Earth.
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
We have been making the Digital Globe imagery, along with Skybox and Astrium imagery available in Google Earth through this KML file: http://mw1.google.com/crisisresponse/2015/nepal_earthquake/2015_nepal_earthquake_imagery.kml
-Christiaan Adams with the Google Crisis Response team.