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The 20 April 2013 Lushan earthquake occurred on the southern section of the Longmen Shan fault system. Using GPS data from 33 continuous stations, we derive a three-dimensional coseismic displacement field of the earthquake and invert for the location, geometry, and slip distribution of the fault rupture. Our study result indicates that the earthquake occurred on a reverse fault striking N28°E and dipping 43°to the NW, with the maximum slip located at 30.292°N, 102.943°E, and 13 km depth. The rupture is dominated by thrust faulting, with a slight but still statistically significant sinistral component. The seismic moment release is 9.5 × 10 18 N · m, equivalent to a Mw6.6 earthquake. Our results suggest that at the southern end of the Longmen Shan fault zone near the triple junction with the Xianshuihe and Anninghe faults, the kinematic deformation field is no longer block-like, but broadly distributed to accommodate the buttressing effect of deformation around the fault triple junction.

We present a new 3‐D lithospheric Vs model for the NE Tibetan Plateau (NETP) and the western North China Craton (NCC). First, high‐frequency receiver functions (RFs) were inverted using the neighborhood algorithm to estimate the sedimentary structure beneath each station. Then a 3D Vs model with unprecedented resolution was constructed by jointly inverting RFs and Rayleigh wave dispersions. A low‐velocity sedimentary layer with thicknesses varying from 2 to 10 km is present in the Yinchuan‐Hetao graben, Ordos block, and western Alxa block. Velocities from the middle‐lower crust to the uppermost mantle are generally high in the Ordos block and low in the Alxa block, indicating that the Alxa block is not part of the NCC. The thickened crust in southwestern Ordos block and western Alxa block suggests that they have been modified. Two crustal low‐velocity zones (LVZs) were detected beneath the Kunlun Fault (KF) zone and western Qilian Terrane (QLT). The origin of the LVZ beneath the KF zone may be the combined effect of shear heating, localized asthenosphere upwelling, and crustal radioactivity. The LVZ in the western QLT, representing an early stage of the LVZ that has developed in the KF zone, acts as a decollement to decouple the deformation between the upper and lower crust and plays a key role in seismogenesis. We propose that the crustal deformation beneath the NETP is accommodated by a combination of shear motion, thickening of the upper‐middle crust, and removal of lower crust.

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We present new constraints on the upper mantle transition zone structure beneath eastern and southeastern Tibet based on P wave receiver functions for a large broadband data set from two very dense seismic arrays. A clear depression of both the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities is detected west of the Red River fault relative to the east. The correlated topographic variations across the Red River fault are indicative of temperature changes in the upper mantle above the transition zone, which suggests that the fault is a deep‐rooted structure that penetrates into the upper mantle and separates Indochina from South China. West of the Red River fault, the transition zone thickness under the Tengchong volcano is found to be normal compared to the global average. This strongly suggests that the intraplate volcano may originate from slab tearing of the eastward subducting Indian plate at shallow depths in the upper mantle rather than from dehydration of a flattened plate within the transition zone. Our results further show that the 660 km discontinuity is significantly depressed under the western Yangtze Craton and that the transition zone therefore thickens by up to 20 km. This thickening is suggestive of lowered temperatures associated with a remnant of detached lithosphere in response to overlying asthenospheric escape flow in and around the western Yangtze Craton. In addition, we find that the transition zone thickness beneath much of the Sichuan Basin is similar to the global average.