Abstract
The 2020 Mw6.4 Nima earthquake is one of the largest normal-faulting earthquakes recently occurring north of the Banggong suture zone in remote central Tibet, where geologic investigation of active faults is extremely limited. We analyze jointly InSAR and GNSS observations over 9 months after the Nima earthquake and calculate the coseismic and postseismic displacement. The optimal coseismic slip model suggests this event is the result of moderate-angle down-dip slip on a complex reversed “S-shape” three-segmented structure at fault junctions of the West Yibu-Chaka fault, the Heishi fault, and an unmapped blind fault, with a small component of left-lateral slip. The superposition of seismic waves from faults with different strikes and dips accounted for a large non-double-couple component in the long-period point-source solutions. The geodetic moment released by the mainshock is 6.4 × 1018 N⋅m, equivalent to Mw 6.42. Coseismic rupture concentrated at a depth of 4–15 km, with a peak slip of 1.36 m at 8.5 km depth. The cumulative afterslip moment within 9 months after the mainshock is 1 × 1018 N m, about 15.6% of that released by the mainshock coseismic slip. The afterslips contributed largely to the release of additional strain energy. In addition, shallow creep on the northern part of the blind fault, and deep uplift on the east normal fault system are promoted by stress perturbations. A significant proportion of down-dip coseismic slip spreading to more than 20 km beneath the surface, and deep up-slip afterslip have implications for the rheology of down-dip extension of the dipping faults in northern Tibet. Two obvious stress loading zones of more than 1 bar highlight seismic hazards in the region, especially in the junction between normal faults and ends of the large-size sinistral Riganpei-Co and Jiangai-Zangbu faults. It is necessary to forecast accurately by longer-term afterslip observation over timescales of years for the faults. Compared with previous studies, our results suggest a more complex subsurface fault geometry linking the normal and strike-slip faults and dynamic stress adjustment in this poorly-known region of Tibet.
1 Introduction
The Tibetan plateau comprises complex systems of connected and interacting faults. Several NS-trending rift systems developed in the central and southern part of the Tibet Plateau are aligned regularly and nearly perpendicular to the Himalayan collision arc due to the long-term effects of collision and compression of the India-Eurasia plates (; ; ; ; ; Yin and Taylor, 2011) (Figure 1). These rift systems are large in scale and accompanied by multiple groups of NS-trending normal fault systems. They are often associated with large EW-trending strike-slip faults, and together accommodate some of the spatially-varying strains in response to the India-Eurasia plate collision (), and are bounded by the Bangong-Nujiang suture zone (BNS). There are significant differences in E-W extension rate and deformation styles on the northern and southern sides of the BNS. South of the BNS, the majority of E-W directed extension deformation is accommodated by several N-S normal-faulting systems (; ; ; ), with slip rates in the range of 1–3 mm/a (; Wu et al., 2015; ; ; ). However, the extension is not obvious in the central plateau north of the BNS, and the active tectonics is primarily marked by a series of discrete conjugate strike-slip faults. At the tail end of these faults, N-S normal-faulting plays a subsidiary role in the E-W extension of the plateau (Yin et al., 1999; ; ; ). The late Quaternary slip rate of corresponding normal faults is mostly limited to 0.3–0.7 mm/a (; Wu et al., 2015; ).
FIGURE 1
In central Tibet, NS-trending normal faults are kinematically linked with and subsidiary to the strike-slip faults. Moderate to large earthquakes are infrequent in central Tibet compared with the high seismicity in plateau margins. However, the Riganpei-Co, Yibu-Chaka, and Jiangai-Zangbu fault (RYJF) system (Figure 2) is important to note which held several moderate magnitude events since 1973. The ∼340 km long Riganpei Co fault is a NE-strike sinistral fault zone, conjugated with the EES-striking Gaize Dong-Co fault, lying on the southern side of the BNS (
FIGURE 2

Topographic and tectonic setting map of the Yibu-Chaka graben. Black lines indicate regional active faults modified after Taylor and Yin (
Recent moderate magnitude earthquakes of normal type are more frequent in this region. The Nima-Gaize earthquake sequence of Ms = 6.4, 5.9, and 5.4 in 2008 occurred in the junction of the southern end of the Riganpei-Co fault and the Gaize Dong-Co fault in southern-central Tibet (
TABLE 1
| Model | Latitude (°) | Longitude (°) | Centroid (km) | Strike (°) | Dip (°) | Rake (°) | Slip (m) | Moment (1018N.m) | Non-DC (%) | Magnitude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CENC | 33.19 | 86.81 | 10 | 10 | 50 | −81 | Ms6.6 | |||
| USGS | 33.144 | 86.864 | 10 | 20 | 61 | −91 | 3.2 | 21 | Mww6.3 | |
| GCMT | 33.10 | 86.87 | 16.8 | 10 | 48 | −88 | 5.01 | 43 | Mw6.4 | |
| * | 33.16 | 86.8 | 9.5 | 28 | 48 | −92.3 | 1.1 | 4.9 | Mw6.39 | |
| *Yang et al. (2021a) | 6.3 | 30 | 48.3 | −80 | 1.2 | Mw6.3 | ||||
| * | 33.18 | 86.89 | 7.5 | 28 | 48 | −87 | 1.5 | 4.7 | Mw6.4 | |
| * | 33.18 | 86.88 | 6.9 | 28.8 | 49.4 | −78.6 | 1.2 | 4.02 | Mw6.28 | |
| * | 33.18 | 86.88 | 7.5 | 45.5°–55.5° | 1.39 | 3.84 | Mw6.36 | |||
| *Model_1 | 33.17 | 86.88 | — | 40 | 50 | −180 | — | — | — | |
| *Model_2 | 33.17 | 86.88 | 7.7 | 36 | 50 | −74 | 0.87 | 5.45 | Mw6.38 | |
| *Model_3 | 33.17 | 86.88 | 8.5 | AC: 30 | 45 | −78 | 1.36 | 6.4 | 3.65 | Mw6.42 |
| CD: 13 | 50 | |||||||||
| DB: 37 | 45 |
Fault plane parameters for the mainshock from InSAR studies, and as listed in the CENC, USGS, and GCMT Catalogs.
The location indicates the centroid location or hypocenters, except for the InSAR models (*), which show the up-dip projection of the fault center to the surface.
Inversion of coseismic and postseismic deformations helps understanding the mechanics of fault interaction, the process of postseismic stress transfer, and viscous rheology properties of the lithosphere (
2 Materials and methods
The study area is located in central Tibet with an average altitude of greater than 4,300 m, where only a few GNSS stations are available. The known coseismic or postseismic slip models of the Nima earthquake are inverted using only the Sentinel-1 C-band SAR interferometry images (Yang et al., 2021a;
FIGURE 3

Inversion processing flowchart of coseismic and postseismic slip models with GNSS and InSAR datasets.
2.1 Data preprocessing
2.1.1 GNSS data preprocessing
The raw RINEX files of three continuous GNSS stations are preprocessed using the GAMIT/GLOBK software (
FIGURE 4

Position time series of postseismic transient motion in the second year at the near-field GNSS station ROMA (black dots) and the modeled curve (blue lines) for various combinations of Tibetan mantle transient and steady-state viscosities. The left panel shows the complete time series at this station, with the grey vertical lines, dark blue lines, and blue dashed lines representing the time of the mainshock, the coseismic offset, and the postseismic relaxation. The red and green lines in the left panel and blue lines in the right panel indicate the total signal, 1-dimensional linear fitting of the long-period interseismic tectonic estimate, and the modeled curve, respectively.
2.1.2 InSAR data preprocessing
The coseismic SAR data are preprocessed with the open-source GMTSAR software (https://topex.ucsd.edu/gmtsar/). In Step 2 (Figure 3), Set a multi-look factor of 20:4 in the range and azimuth direction to improve the deformation field SNR and remove system noise. The orbit error and topographic phase are removed using precision orbit files and the 1 arc-second (∼30 m) resolution DEM from the Shuttle Rader Topography Mission (SRTM) (
FIGURE 5

Coseismic LoS deformation of T012A and T121D for the 2020 Nima earthquake. The red, blue, and green solid lines and shadows in Panel e indicate coseismic LoS displacements of T012A and T121D and coseismic vertical displacements for the 2020 Nima earthquake of Profile 1 in Panel b.
In Step 3 (Figure 3), we downloaded 41 postseismic interferograms of T012A and 56 postseismic interferograms of T121D from 26 July 2020 to 28 April 2021 from the LiCSAR web portal (https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/COMET-LiCS-portal). We construct two groups of Spatial-temporal interference networks using the LiCSBAS method (
FIGURE 6

Two and three-dismension coseismic and postseismic slip models of the 2020 Nima earthquake. Color circle points indicate the initial 8-day and latter aftershocks, respectively. Characters (A,B) inidicate the faulting trace in Figures 2, 9, 10.
2.1.3 Cross verification of GNSS and InSAR displacements
We used the GNSS displacement sequence of station ROMA near the epicenter as the reference position to verify the postseismic motions derived from InSAR data. We converted the east, north, and up-component motions of each GNSS station into the line of sight (LoS) direction by the affine transformation, respectively. And then a logarithmic empirical Eq. (2) is used to fit the GNSS and InSAR displacement sequences, respectively.where A represents afterslip amplitude; t is the time series after the mainshock ; describes the attenuation time of afterslip signs. Postseismic displacement sequences at Point 1, 2, and 3 in Figure 7 shows a high consistency between the GNSS and InSAR postseismic displacement sequences within 9 months after the mainshock (Supplementary Figure S8), which validates the filtered displacement sequences are reliable. As the LoS of the descending orbit is roughly parallel to the fault, the weak nonlinear displacement signs for descending orbit datasets are dropped even further during the spatio-temporal filtering processing.
FIGURE 7

Postseismic deformation of the 2020 Nima earthquake inverted by the SDM method with residuals between the observations and simulated postseismc deformation by the model. Black box shows the surface projection of the rupture fault plane, which is derived from the optimal distributed slip model and thick black west side denotes the inferred seismogenic fault trace. The thick black line between P1 to P2 indicates the profile be addressed in Figure 8. The circles marked with 1, 2 and 3 indicate sample points in Supplementary Figure S8.
2.2 Coseismic slip modeling
In Step 5 (Figure 3), we carry out a nonlinear inversion algorithm with the GBIS software package (
There is no obvious surface rupture observed, which makes it difficult to directly ascertain the seismogenic fault. Previous InSAR research suggested different results on the seismogenic fault for the 2020 Nima earthquake, such as the east-dip WYF with a constant strike (Yang et al., 2021a;
We found the RMS misfit is sensitive to changing the strike of the fault planes, which hints the seismogenic fault is not a straight single fault rather than a curve with variable strike and dip. We suppose the seismological trace along the trace ACDB in Figure 2 (Model 3 in Table 1), and set the bounds of [0°, 60°] for the dip angle, [0°, 50°] for the strike angle in 5° intervals, the misfit decays steeply, the correlation coefficient is greater than 99%. The RMS misfit residuals between the observations and simulated coseismic displacements are 0.6 cm and 0.7 cm in the LOS direction of T012A, T121D; and 1.7 cm and 1.4 cm in the East-West and North-South direction of GNSS observation, respectively (Supplementary Figure S9). As shown in Figure 6, the coseismic slip model is generally consistent with that suggested by (
2.3 Postseismic slip modeling
It is difficult to separate the mainshock and the initial 8-day aftershocks in InSAR observations. We can only derive the coseismic deformation with the first 8-day postseismic deformation and the latter postseismic deformation. In Step 6 of Figure 3, as the same time windows and periods for InSAR and GPS observations, we firstly carry out the equivalent postseismic slip model (
The equivalent postsesimic slip shows afterslip occurred mainly near Segment 2 and the junction of Segment 2 and 3 (Figure 6). The cumulative afterslip moment within 9 months after the mainshock is , about 15.6% of that released by the mainshock coseismic slip. It is consistent with the estimated results based on typical crustal earthquake sequences (
FIGURE 8

Cumulative postseismic displacement sequence of T012A along the profile P1-P2 in Figure 7. The color gradient from blue to red indicates amplitude of the displacement increment over time.
2.4 Coulomb failure stress change
To characterize the process of postseismic stress transfer and the relationship between afterslip and aftershocks, based on a biviscous Burgers body (Supplementary Figure S13) with the friction coefficient of 0.4, Young’s modulus of 30 GPa, Poisson’s ratio of 0.25, we calculated the CFS change with depth (2–20 km) by the coseismic and postseismic faulting model (Figures 9, 10), as well as the profile of the coseismic CFS on the faulting surface with depth (Figure 11).
FIGURE 9

Coseismic Coulomb stress changes at different depths for the 2020 Nima earthquake. The dotted line AB indicates the seismogenic fault. The black (0.2 m interval) and blue (0.1 m interval) lines indicate the coseismic and postseismic slip isoline projected on the surface, respectively. The green and yellow circles represent the latter aftershocks of 4 ≥ M ≥ 3 and ≥4, respectively.
FIGURE 10

Postseismic Coulomb stress changes at different depths for the 2020 Nima earthquake. Captions are as for Figure 9.
3 Discussion
3.1 Geometry complexity of the seismogenic fault
As shown in Figure 12, our finial coseismic slip model suggests a complex reversed “S-shape” fault structure consisting of three segments within different dips of 45°–50°. The dip value is close to the other results (Table 1), and also consistent with the field observed fault dip of 45°–50°(
FIGURE 12

3D structure of the active normal faults in the Yibu-Chaka graben and the derived optimal seismogenic fault of the 2020 Nima earthquake. Black lines in the section indicate normal faulting. Caption is as for Figures 2, 6.
The overall trend of the seismogenic fault is about 28° and is well consistent with the orientation of regional existing geologic structures and the region shearing stress direction (
The first rotation of the rupture strike was near the intersection of the WYF and the HF, with a lower fracture coefficient of the rock at the multi-faulting junction and thus stress localization, stress at the fault tip more easily exceeds a critical value and then promotes rupture propagation. The InSAR-derived source occurred near the north end (point D) of the bend, which may be in response to stress localization in such a relatively weak material condition (
More generally, the multi-segmented rupture of moderate earthquakes had been observed in other regions by geodetic data. The 2008 Nima-Geizhe double earthquakes (Mw 6.4 and Mw 5.9) occurred in the southern end of the Yibug-Caka-Rigen fault, and rupture two parallel NNE-trending normal faults (
The non-DC component reflects the complexity of the focal mechanism (Zhu and Ben-Zion, 2013). Like the Stanley earthquake, the 2020 Nima earthquake ruptured a multi-segmented fault with variable strike and dip and produced also a non-DC component of 3.65%, which may be associated with the existence of splay subfaults (
3.2 Mechanics of postseismic deformation
The spatiotemporal distribution of postseismic deformation provides important clues to the mechanism of afterslip. Yang et al. suggested that the postseismic deformation was dominated by aseismic slip (Yang et al., 2021a), which is inconsistent with the result of slow slip on a parallel branch to the west of the seismogenic fault suggested by Gao et al. (
In addition, two relatively obvious stress loading zones occurred on Segment DB at the 4 km depth and on the EYF at the 16 km depth, respectively (Figure 10), the corresponding CFS change exceed 1 bar (Figure 11). Meanwhile, the rake angle of the upper and lower portion of the postseismic slip are opposite and with a 42 cm down-dip peak slip at the depth of ∼4 km and a 31 cm peak up-slip at the depth of ∼18 km, respectively (Figure 7). All focal mechanism solutions of aftershocks of M > 4.5 reported by the GCMT (Supplementary Table S3) showed primarily normal faulting with a minor left-lateral strike-slip component, and all of the aftershocks occurred in the depth of 6–9 km (Figure 7). Moreover, around the north of the seismogenic fault, Li et al. found some tectonic extension cracks and surface breaks related to surface shaking (
In the case of Nima, the mainshock and all aftershocks occurred in the upper crust of <10 km (Figure 7), but the coseismic rupture and afterslip extended more than 20 km beneath the surface, rather than was limited to the shallow upper crust. It is obvious substantial down-dip slip occurred on the fault plane from the surface down to the depth, larger than the effective viscoelastic layer thickness of ∼10 km in central Tibet (
3.3 Future earthquake risk
The epicenter of the 2020 Nima earthquake occurred at the center of the Yibu-Chaka graben, but the northern segment of the seismogenic structure didn’t spread along the high-relief western edge of the graben. Such an apparent spatial mismatch between moderate magnitude earthquakes and long-term geomorphic expression of major active faults is surprisingly common in southern Tibet. For instance, in the 2008 Mw 6.3 Damxung earthquake, the 2005 Mw 6.2 Zhongba earthquake, and the 1992 Mw 6.1 Nyemo earthquake (
The 2020 Nima earthquake implies that the potentially seismic disasters in widespread extensional zones in Tibet can occur away from the previous mapped active faults in the graben (
4 Conclusion
We invert the coseismic and postseismic displacement of the 2020 Nima earthquake using jointly InSAR and GNSS datasets over the first 9 months. Our results suggest the Nima earthquake ruptured a complex reversed “S-shape” structure with variable strike and dip at multi-fault junctions. Multiple faults were ruptured during the event, including at least the east-dip West Yibu-Chaka fault, the northeast-dip Heishi fault, and a previously unmapped younger east-dip blind fault, and then promoted to reactivation of the west-dip normal fault system on the east side of the Yibu-Chaka graben. The geometry complexity of the seismogenic fault may lead to the large non-DC component in the long-period point-source solutions. The Coulomb failure stress change calculated by the coseismic and postseismic slip model shows that significant stress at the shallow depth of <10 km was released mainly by the mainshock and aftershocks. The shallow creep at the depth of ∼4 km around the junction between the northern segment of the West Yibu-Chaka fault and the blind fault could be facilitated by stress perturbations. The deep uplift of >16 km depth extended within the brittle-ductile transition zone down-dip of the coseismic rupture zone. It indicates the rheology of the down-dip extension of the dipping faults in northern Tibet. The Coulomb failure stress change of >1 bar around the East Yibu-Chaka fault and the blind fault highlights seismic hazards in the region, especially in the junction between normal faults and ends of the large-scale sinistral Riganpei-Co and Jiangai-Zangbu faults. It is necessary to forecast accurately by longer-term afterslip observation over timescales of years for the faults.
Statements
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Author contributions
XL and JL-Z conceived and designed the experiments; XL, TX, and DD performed the ex-periments; TX and PY analyzed the InSAR data; ZJ, PW, and WW analyzed the GNSS data; XL wrote the paper, and all co-authors contributed to the writing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This work is supported by Science for Earthquake Resilience, China Earthquake Administration (XH22003C), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1839203 and 42011540385).
Acknowledgments
Our thanks go to Teng Wang, Minhan Sheng, Guixi Yi, Changsheng Jiang, Li Li, Shengle Li, Hongwei Tu, Guichun Wei, and Wei Wang for their help and discussions. All Sentinel-1A SAR data are copyrighted by the European Space Agency. Atmospheric corrected data were downloaded from the Generic Atmospheric Correction Online Service for InSAR. Most figures were made using the public domain Generic Mapping Tools (Wessel and Smith, 1998).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.1012773/full#supplementary-material.
References
1
ArmijoR.TapponnierP.HanT. (1989). Late Cenozoic right-lateral strike-slip faulting in southern Tibet. J. Geophys. Res.94 (B3), 2787–2838. 10.1029/JB094iB03p02787
2
BagnardiM.HooperA. (2018). Inversion of surface deformation data for rapid estimates of source parameters and uncertainties: A bayesian approach. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst.19 (7), 2194–2211. 10.1029/2018gc007585
3
BlisniukP. M.SharpW. D. (2003). Rates of late Quaternary normal faulting in central Tibet from U-series dating of pedogenic carbonate in displaced fluvial gravel deposits. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.215 (1-2), 169–186. 10.1016/s0012-821x(03)00374-1
4
BürgmannR.DresenG. (2008). Rheology of the lower crust and upper mantle: Evidence from rock mechanics, geodesy, and field observations. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci.36 (1), 531–567. 10.1146/annurev.earth.36.031207.124326
5
ChenC. W.ZebkerH. A. (2001). Two-dimensional phase unwrapping with use of statistical models for cost functions in nonlinear optimization. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A18 (2), 338–351. 10.1364/josaa.18.000338
6
ChevalierM.-L.TapponnierP.van der WoerdJ.LeloupP. H.WangS.PanJ.et al (2020). Late quaternary extension rates across the northern half of the yadong-gulu rift: Implication for East-West extension in southern Tibet. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth125 (7), e2019JB019106. 10.1029/2019JB019106
7
ChuR.ZhuL.HelmbergerD. V. (2009). Determination of earthquake focal depths and source time functions in central Asia using teleseismic P waveforms. Geophys. Res. Lett.36 (17), L17317. 10.1029/2009GL039494
8
DayemK. E.HousemanG. A.MolnarP. (2009). Localization of shear along a lithospheric strength discontinuity: Application of a continuous deformation model to the boundary between Tibet and the Tarim Basin. Tectonics28 (3), 2264. 10.1029/2008TC002264
9
ElliottJ. R.WaltersR. J.EnglandP. C.JacksonJ. A.LiZ.ParsonsB. (2010). Extension on the Tibetan plateau: Recent normal faulting measured by InSAR and body wave seismology. Geophys. J. Int.183 (2), 503–535. 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2010.04754.x
10
EnglandP. C.WalkerR. T.FuB.FloydM. A. (2013). A bound on the viscosity of the Tibetan crust from the horizontality of palaeolake shorelines. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.375, 44–56. 10.1016/j.epsl.2013.05.001
11
FarrT. G.KobrickM. (2000). Shuttle radar topography mission produces a wealth of data. Eos Trans. AGU.81 (48), 583–585. 10.1029/EO081i048p00583
12
FrohlichC. (1994). Earthquakes with non-double-couple mechanisms. Science264 (5160), 804–809. 10.1126/science.264.5160.804
13
GaoH.LiaoM.LiangX.FengG.WangG. (2022). Coseismic and postseismic fault kinematics of the july 22, 2020, Nima (Tibet) Ms6.6 earthquake: Implications of the forming mechanism of the active N-S-trending grabens in qiangtang, Tibet. Tectonics41 (3), e2021TC006949. 10.1029/2021TC006949
14
GoldsteinR. M.WernerC. L. (1998). Radar interferogram filtering for geophysical applications. Geophys. Res. Lett.25 (21), 4035–4038. 10.1029/1998gl900033
15
HaG.WuZ.LiuF. (2019). Late quaternary vertical slip rates along the southern yadong–gulu rift, southern Tibetan plateau. Tectonophysics755, 75–90. 10.1016/j.tecto.2019.02.014
16
HanS.LiH.PanJ.LuH.ZhengY.LiuD.et al (2018). Co-Seismic surface ruptures in qiangtang terrane: Insight into late cenozoic deformation of central Tibet. Tectonophysics750, 359–378. 10.1016/j.tecto.2018.11.001
17
HarrisonT. M.CopelandP.KiddW. S. F.LoveraO. M. (1995). Activation of the nyainqentanghla shear zone: Implications for uplift of the southern Tibetan plateau. Tectonics14, 658–676. 10.1029/95tc00608
18
HeJ.GillesP. (2010). Poroelastic triggering in the 9-22 january 2008 nima-gaize (Tibet) earthquake sequence. Geology38 (10), p907–p910. 10.1130/g31104.1
19
HerringT.KingR. W.FloydM.McCluskyS. (2018). Introduction to GAMIT/GLOBK release 10.7. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
20
JiZ.ZhangY.WangS. (2021). Coseismic deformation field and fault slip distribution inversion of the Ms 6.6 Nima, Xizang earthquake by Sentinel-1A InSAR data. Prog. Geophys.1, 1–10. 10.6038/pg2021EE0489
21
JiaK.ZhouS.ZhuangJ.JiangC. (2021). Stress transfer along the western boundary of the bayan har block on the Tibet Plateau from the 2008 to 2020 yutian earthquake sequence in China. Geophys. Res. Lett.48, e94125. 10.1029/2021gl094125
22
JulianB. R.MillerA. D.FoulgerG. R. (1998). Non-double-couple earthquakes 1. Theory. Rev. Geophys.36 (4), 525–549. 10.1029/98RG00716
23
KaganY. Y.HoustonH. (2005). Relation between mainshock rupture process and Omori’s law for aftershock moment release rate. Geophys. J. Int.163 (3), 1039–1048. 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2005.02772.x
24
KappP.TaylorM.StockliD.DingL. (2008). Development of active low-angle normal fault systems during orogenic collapse: Insight from Tibet. Geol.36 (1), 7–10. 10.1130/g24054a.1
25
KugeK.LayT. (1994). Systematic non‐double‐couple components of earthquake mechanisms: The role of fault zone irregularity. J. Geophys. Res.99, 15457–15467. 10.1029/94jb00140
26
LayT.WallaceT. C. (1995). Modern global seismology. San Diego: Academic Press.
27
LazeckýM.SpaansK.GonzálezP. J.MaghsoudiY.MorishitaY.AlbinoF.et al (2020). LiCSAR: An automatic InSAR tool for measuring and monitoring tectonic and volcanic activity. Remote Sens.12 (15), 2430. 10.3390/rs12152430
28
LiK.KirbyE.XuX.ChenG.RenJ.WangD. (2019). Rates of Holocene normal faulting along the Dong Co fault in central Tibet, based on 14C dating of displaced fluvial terraces. J. Asian Earth Sci.183, 103962. 10.1016/j.jseaes.2019.103962
29
LiK.LiY.TapponnierP.XuX.LiD.HeZ. (2021). Joint InSAR and field constraints on faulting during the Mw 6.4, july 23, 2020, nima/rongma earthquake in central Tibet. JGR. Solid Earth126 (9), e2021JB022212. 10.1029/2021JB022212
30
LiY.BürgmannR. (2021). Partial coupling and earthquake potential along the xianshuihe fault, China. JGR. Solid Earth126 (7), e2020JB021406. 10.1029/2020JB021406
31
LiuF.-c.PanJ.-w.LiH.-b.SunZ.-m.LiuD.-l.LuH.-j.et al (2021). Characteristics of quaternary activities along the Riganpei Co fault and seismogenic structure of the july 23, 2020 Mw6.4 Nima earthquake, central Tibet. Acta Geosci. Sin.42 (1), 139–154. 10.3975/cagsb.2021.010402
32
Liu-ZengJ.ZhangZ.RollinsC.GualandiA.AvouacJ.-P.ShiH.et al (2020). Postseismic deformation following the 2015 Mw7.8 gorkha (Nepal) earthquake: New GPS data, kinematic and dynamic models, and the roles of afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth125 (9), e2020JB019852. 10.1029/2020JB019852
33
McKenzieD.NimmoF.JacksonJ. A.GansP. B.MillerE. L. (2000). Characteristics and consequences of flow in the lower crust. J. Geophys. Res.105 (B5), 11029–11046. 10.1029/1999JB900446
34
MolnarP.ChenW.-P. (1983). Focal depths and fault plane solutions of earthquakes under the Tibetan Plateau. J. Geophys. Res.88 (B2), 1180–1196. 10.1029/JB088iB02p01180
35
MolnarP.Lyon-CaentH. (1989). Fault plane solutions of earthquakes and active tectonics of the Tibetan Plateau and its margins. Geophys. J. Int.99 (1), 123–154. 10.1111/j.1365-246X.1989.tb02020.x
36
MolnarP.TapponnierP. (1978). Active tectonics of Tibet. J. Geophys. Res.83 (B11), 5361–5375. 10.1029/JB083iB11p05361
37
MorishitaY.LazeckyM.WrightT. J.WeissJ. R.ElliottJ. R.HooperA. (2020). LiCSBAS: An open-source InSAR time series analysis package integrated with the LiCSAR automated sentinel-1 InSAR processor. Remote Sens.12 (3), 424. 10.3390/rs12030424
38
OkadaY. (1985). Surface deformation due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am.75, 1135–1154. 10.1785/bssa0750041135
39
PollitzF. F.WicksC.YeckW. L.EvansJ. (2019). fault slip associated with the 2 september 2017 M 5.3 Sulphur peak, Idaho, earthquake and aftershock sequence. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am.109 (3), 875–887. 10.1785/0120180206
40
PreussS.HerrendörferR.GeryaT.AmpueroJ.-P.van DintherY. (2019). Seismic and aseismic fault growth lead to different fault orientations. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth124 (8), 8867–8889. 10.1029/2019JB017324
41
RyderI.BürgmannR.SunJ. (2010). Tandem afterslip on connected fault planes following the 2008 Nima-Gaize (Tibet) earthquake. J. Geophys. Res.115 (B3), B03404. 10.1029/2009JB006423
42
ShiX.KirbyE.FurlongK. P.WangE.MengK.PhillipsF. M.et al (2012). Preliminary constraints on rheology of the deep crust beneath central Tibet from late pleistocene—early Holocene shorelines. Geophys. Res. Abstr.EGU2012-10796 (14), 1.
43
TapponnierP.ZhiqinX.RogerF.MeyerB.ArnaudN.WittlingerG.et al (2001). Oblique stepwise rise and growth of the Tibet Plateau. Science294 (5547), 1671–1677. 10.1126/science.105978
44
TaylorM.AnY. (2009). Active structures of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen and their relationships to earthquake distribution, contemporary strain field, and Cenozoic volcanism. Geosphere5 (3), 199–214. 10.1130/ges00217.s1
45
TaylorM.YinA.RyersonF. J.KappP.DingL. (2003). Conjugate strike-slip faulting along the Bangong-Nujiang suture zone accommodates coeval east-west extension and north-south shortening in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau. Tectonics22 (4), 1361. 10.1029/2002TC001361
46
WallaceL. M.HreinsdóttirS.EllisS.HamlingI.D'AnastasioE.DenysP. (2018). Triggered slow slip and afterslip on the southern hikurangi subduction zone following the kaikōura earthquake. Geophys. Res. Lett.45 (10), 4710–4718. 10.1002/2018gl077385
47
WangH.ElliottJ. R.CraigT. J.WrightT. J.Liu-ZengJ.HooperA. (2014). Normal faulting sequence in the Pumqu-Xainza Rift constrained by InSAR and teleseismic body-wave seismology. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst.15 (7), 2947–2963. 10.1002/2014GC005369
48
WangM.ShenZ.-K. (2020). Present-day crustal deformation of continental China derived from GPS and its tectonic implications. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth125 (2), e2019JB018774. 10.1029/2019JB018774
49
WangR.Lorenzo-MartínF.RothF. (2006). PSGRN/PSCMP—A new code for calculating co- and post-seismic deformation, geoid and gravity changes based on the viscoelastic-gravitational dislocation theory. Comput. Geosciences32 (4), 527–541. 10.1016/j.cageo.2005.08.006
50
WangR.SchurrB.MilkereitC.ShaoZ.JinM. (2011). An improved automatic scheme for empirical baseline correction of digital strong-motion records. Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am.101 (5), 2029–2044. 10.1785/0120110039
51
WangS.ChevalierM.-L.PanJ.BaiM.LiK.LiH.et al (2020). Quantification of the late Quaternary throw rates along the Yadong rift, southern Tibet. Tectonophysics790, 228545. 10.1016/j.tecto.2020.228545
52
WesselP.SmithW. (1998). New, improved version of generic mapping tools released. Eos Trans. AGU.79 (47), 579. 10.1029/98eo00426
53
WuZ.LongC.FanT.ZhouC.FengH.YangZ.et al (2015). The arc rotational-shear active tectonic system on the southeastern margin of Tibetan Plateau and its dynamic characteristics and mechanism. Geol. Bull. China34 (01), 1–31.
54
XiaT.LiuX.YuP.DengD.YueZ.GaoT. (2022). Coseismic rupture model of the 2021 shuanghu M5.7 earthquake based on sentinel-1A. J. Geodesy Geodyn.42 (5), 533–540. 10.14075/j.jgg.2022.05.017
55
YangJ.XuC.WenY.XuG. (2021a). The july 2020 Mw 6.3 Nima earthquake, central Tibet: A shallow normal‐faulting event rupturing in a stepover zone. Seismol. Res. Lett.93 (1), 45–55. 10.1785/0220210057
56
YangJ.ZhuH.LayT.NiuY.YeL.LuZ.et al (2021b). Multi-fault opposing-dip strike-slip and normal-fault rupture during the 2020 Mw 6.5 Stanley, Idaho earthquake. Geophys. Res. Lett.48 (10), e2021GL092510. 10.1029/2021GL092510
57
YangY.-H.HuJ.-C.TungH.TsaiM.-C.ChenQ.XuQ.et al (2018). Co-seismic and postseismic fault models of the 2018 Mw 6.4 hualien earthquake occurred in the junction of collision and subduction boundaries offshore eastern taiwan. Remote Sens.10 (9), 1372. 10.3390/rs10091372
58
YinA.KapP. A.PaulA. (1999). Significant late Neogene east-west extension in northern Tibet. Geology27, 787–790. 10.1130/0091-7613(1999)027<0787:SLNEWE>2.3.CO;2
59
YinA.TaylorM. H. (2011). Mechanics of V-shaped conjugate strike-slip faults and the corresponding continuum mode of continental deformation. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull.123 (9-10), 1798–1821. 10.1130/b30159.1
60
YuC.LiZ.PennaN. T.CrippaP. (2018). Generic atmospheric correction model for interferometric synthetic aperture radar observations. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth123 (10), 9202–9222. 10.1029/2017jb015305
61
ZhuL.Ben-ZionY. (2013). Parametrization of general seismic potency and moment tensors for source inversion of seismic waveform data. Geophys. J. Int.194 (2), 839–843. 10.1093/gji/ggt137
Summary
Keywords
normal faulting earthquake, 2020 Nima earthquake, InSAR, GNSS, coseismic deformation, postseismic deformation, Tibetan plateau
Citation
Liu X, Xia T, Liu-Zeng J, Deng D, Jia Z, Wang P, Yu P and Wang W (2023) Coseismic and early postseismic deformation of the 2020 Nima Mw 6.4 earthquake, central Tibet, from InSAR and GNSS observations. Front. Earth Sci. 10:1012773. doi: 10.3389/feart.2022.1012773
Received
05 August 2022
Accepted
07 November 2022
Published
17 January 2023
Volume
10 - 2022
Edited by
Zhenjie Wang, China University of Petroleum (Huadong), China
Reviewed by
Wanpeng Feng, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, China
Shengji Wei, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Updates

Check for updates
Copyright
© 2023 Liu, Xia, Liu-Zeng, Deng, Jia, Wang, Yu and Wang.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Xiaoli Liu, liuxl.j@163.com; Jing Liu-Zeng, liu_zeng@tju.edu.cn
This article was submitted to Structural Geology and Tectonics, a section of the journal Frontiers in Earth Science
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
