Resolving co- and early post-seismic slip variations of the 2021 MW 7.4 Madoi earthquake in east Bayan Har block with a block-wide distributed deformation mode from satellite synthetic aperture radar data

On 21 May 2021(UTC),an MW 7.4 earthquake jolted the east Bayan Har block in the Tibetan Plateau.The earthquake received widespread attention as it is the largest event in the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake,and especially in proximity to the seismic gaps on the east Kunlun fault.Here we use satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar data and subpixel offset observations along the range directions to characterize the coseismic deformation of the earthquake.Range offset displacements depict clear surface ruptures with a total length of~170 km involving two possible activated fault segments in the earthquake.Coseismic modeling results indicate that the earthquake was dominated by left-lateral strike-slip motions of up to 7 m within the top 12 km of the crust.The well-resolved slip variations are characterized by five major slip patches along strike and 64%of shallow slip deficit,suggesting a young seismogenic structure.Spatial-temporal changes of the postseismic deformation are mapped from early 6-day and 24-day InSAR observations,and are well explained by time-dependent afterslip models.Analysis of Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)velocity profiles and strain rates suggests that the eastward extrusion of plateau is diffusely distributed across the east Bayan Har block,but exhibits significant lateral heterogeneities,as evidenced by magnetotelluric observations.The block-wide distributed deformation of the east Bayan Har block along with the significant co-and post-seismic stress loadings from the Madoi earthquake imply high seismic risks along regional faults,especially the Tuosuo Lake and Maqên-Maqu segments of the Kunlun fault that are known as seismic gaps.

Co- and post-seismic slip analysis of the 2017 M_(W)7.3 Sarpol Zahab earthquake using Sentinel-1 data

The M_(w)7.3 Sarpol Zahab earthquake that occurred in the Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt(ZFTB) of Iran on November 12,2017 is the largest earthquake instrumentally recorded in the region.This earthquake provides an opportunity to investigate the slip behaviour and frictional properties of the fault,which is significant for assessing future seismic potential.In this study,we use Sentinel-1 images to map the coand post-seismic deformation to invert for the fault slip.The result indicates that most of the coseismic slip is buried in the depth range of 11-17 km,and the maximum slip is about 3.8 m at a depth of 15 km.The coseismic slip induces an increase of Coulomb stress in the unruptured area of the seismogenic fault plane,driving the afterslip.Based on the stress-driven afterslip,we obtain a frictional parameter of(ab)=(0.001-0.002) for the updip afterslip zone and(a-b)=0.0002 for the downdip afterslip zone in the framework of rate-and-state friction.The constitutive parameter(a-b) of the fault is very small,suggesting that the fault segments are close to velocity-neutral and may experience coseismic rupture.

New Precipitation and Temperature Grids for Northern Patagonia： Advances in Relation to Global Climate Grids

Climate data of mean monthly temperature and total monthly precipitation compiled from different sources in northern Patagonia were interpolated to 20-km resolution grids over the period 1997-2010. This northern Patagonian climate grid （NPCG） improves upon previous gridded products in terms of its spatial resolution and number of contributing stations, since it incorporates 218 and 114 precipitation and temper- ature records, respectively. A geostatistical method using surface elevation from a Digital Elevation Model （DEM） as the ancillary variable was used to interpolate station data into even spaced points. The maps provided by NPCG are consistent with the broad spatial and temporal patterns of the northern Patagonian climate, showing a comprehensive representation of the latitudinal and altitudinal gradients in temperature and precipitation, as well as their related patterns of seasonality and continentality. We compared the per- formance of NPCG and various other datasets available to the climate community for northern Patagonia. The grids used for the comparison included those of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project, ERA- Interim, Climate Research Unit （University of East Anglia）, and University of Delaware. Based on three statistics that quantitatively assess the spatial coherence of gridded data against available observations （bias, MAE, and RMSE）, NPCG outperforms other global grids. NPCG represents a useful tool for understand- ing climate variability in northern Patagonia and a valuable input for regional models of hydrological and ecological processes. Its resolution is optimal for validating data from the general circulation models and working with raster data derived from remote sensing, such as vegetation indices.