AUTHOR=Feng Long , Chang He , Guixi Yi , Xiaohui He , Li Li , Fuqiang Shi , Yue Gong , Liyuan Peng TITLE=Seismogenic structures and spatiotemporal seismicity patterns of the 2022 Ms6.0 Maerkang earthquake sequence, Sichuan, China JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science VOLUME=10 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.1049911 DOI=10.3389/feart.2022.1049911 ISSN=2296-6463 ABSTRACT=
The 2022 Ms6.0 Maerkang earthquake sequence, Sichuan, China, occurred in an unexpected area with historically rare seismicity in the Bayan Har block. Here we relocated the earthquake sequence, inverted for the focal mechanisms of the larger events, and calculated the rupture directivity of the earthquake sequence to reveal the seismogenic structures and mechanisms of this sequence. The high-precision relocations indicate that the seismogenic structures consist of several clusters that are generally parallel to the nearby NW-trending Songgang fault, and relatively small-scale conjugate faults are also identified. The seismicity migrated from cluster one in the south to cluster two in the north during the sequence. Furthermore, the hypocenters were largely located at 5–10 km depth, thereby highlighting that the seismogenic structures are buried. The vertical fault planes of the seismogenic structures are consistent with the high-dip focal mechanism solutions from seven events. A stress field inversion based on the focal mechanisms indicates that the sequence occurred in a strike-slip environment that was controlled by a NNW–SSE-striking principal compressive stress. The different rupture directivities of the