Earthquake Cycle Deformation Associated with the 2021 MW 7.4 Maduo (Eastern Tibet) Earthquake: An Intrablock Rupture Event on a Slow-Slipping Fault from Sentinel-1 InSAR and Teleseismic Data

In the continents, the importance of earthquakes that occur away from major block-bounding faults is still debated. The 21 May 2021 MW ∼ 7.4 Maduo earthquake occurred on a secondary fault away from previously-identified major block boundaries. Here we use 7 years of Sentinel-1 Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) time series (between October 2014 and November 2021) to determine the distribution of coseismic slip and early postseismic afterslip following the Maduo earthquake, and the preceding interseismic strain accumulation. We devised a 13-segment 3-D fault geometry constrained by the SAR range offsets and the distribution of relocated aftershocks and used a Bayesian method incorporating von Karman regularization to solve for coseismic slip and afterslip models. We also used teleseismic waveforms as a standalone inversion to show the rupture evolution in space and time during the earthquake, finding that it propagates bilaterally with three notable rupture episodes. Our preferred coseismic self-similar slip model shows a moderate shallow slip deficit, with the majority of moment release occurring in the depth interval of 1–10 km. The coseismic slip deficit is taken up in part by afterslip at shallow (<4 km) depths that grows linearly with time during the first ∼6 months, and at >10 km depths where afterslip grows logarithmically with time. We suggest that this heterogeneity is likely controlled by spatial variations in fault friction related to lithology. We discuss the implications for seismic hazard away from major tectonic block boundaries in light of our observations of the earthquake cycle on this intrablock fault.