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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.

Sec. Solid Earth Geophysics

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1553967

This article is part of the Research Topic Faults and Earthquakes Viewed by Networks, Monitoring Systems and by Numerical Modelling Techniques View all 11 articles

InSAR-Constrained Parallel Elastic Finite Element Models for Fault Coseismic Dislocation Inversion: A Case Study of the 2016 MW 5.9 Menyuan Earthquake

Provisionally accepted
  • University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The study of fault coseismic dislocation distribution is crucial for understanding fault stress release, fault sliding behavior, and surface deformation during seismic events. This knowledge is essential for engineering design and disaster prevention. Traditional seismic dislocation theories, which assume a uniform elastic semi-infinite space, fail to account for topographic relief, medium inhomogeneity in the seismic source area. In contrast, parallel elastic finite element models effectively address these complexities by accommodating geometric, material, and boundary condition variations, offering high spatial resolution and efficient computation. In this paper, we introduce a novel fault coseismic dislocation inversion method based on parallel elastic finite element simulations. We conduct inversion tests using several idealized fault models to validate our approach. Applying this method to the 2016 MW 5.9Menyuan earthquake, we successfully invert the coseismic dislocation distributions. Our results align with previous studies and show excellent agreement with InSAR coseismic observations, thereby confirming the method's validity.Ideal model tests demonstrate that a 10% Young's modulus contrast across fault interfaces significantly affects coseismic dislocation inversion.Topographic relief exhibits limited influence on the coseismic dislocation inversion of the 2016 Menyuan MW 5.9 earthquake. The distinct mechanical responses of material heterogeneity and topographic effects require separate quantification, confirming our method's viability for coseismic dislocation inversion in actual large earthquakes.

    Keywords: fault coseismic dislocation inversion, parallel elastic finite element model, the 2016 MW 5.9 Menyuan earthquake, Checkerboard test, Damped least square method

    Received: 31 Dec 2024; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Hu, Shi and Zhang. 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) or licensor 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:
    Caibo Hu, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    Huai Zhang, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    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.

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