Source Characteristics of the 2017 Ms 6.6 (Mw 6.3) Jinghe Earthquake in the Northeastern Tien Shan

Abstract

Abstract On 8 August 2017, an Ms 6.6 earthquake occurred in the northeastern Tien Shan orogenic belt. To reveal the source characteristics of this earthquake completely, the teleseismic and near-field seismic waveform data were collected as well as the coseismic Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar displacement data, and the methods of the backprojection and the finite-fault joint inversion were adopted. The backprojection of the teleseismic recordings indicates a unilateral rupture propagating 15 km westward. Two stages of the rupture were recognized from the backprojection results: in the first ∼5  s, the rupture took place near the hypocenter, with an accelerating energy release but a small rupture velocity; then the rupture extended to the west, with a decelerating energy release but a relatively fast rupture velocity. The joint inversion of the multiple datasets shows a major slip asperity of about 24  km × 18  km. The asperity extended mainly to the west, with a duration of approximately 10 s. The average rupture velocity over the asperity was estimated to be approximately 2.0  km/s, which is close to that 1.9  km/s estimated by the backprojection. It is interesting that the high-frequency sources were aligned almost on the margin of the slip asperity. Moreover, the occurrence of the earthquake sequence is found to relate with the low-VP/VS zone, implying a tectonic property, which controls the nucleation and rupture of earthquakes.