The 2021 Mw7.3 Maduo (Qinghai, China) earthquake ruptured ∼160 km along a poorly known secondary fault inside the Bayanhar block on the northern Tibetan plateau, which is generally parallel to the Kunlun fault. Here we integrate the interseismic (2015–2020) and coseismic geodetic observations to quantify the interseismic strain rate, fault geometry and coseismic slip distribution. Our results reveal that the seismogenic fault is featured by the low (<20 nanostrain/yr) and nearly undetectable interseismic strain rate. Three‐dimensional displacement fields and coseismic strain maps demonstrate the spatial variations of rupture kinematics due to the change of fault geometry. Our study reveals the steeply north‐dipping fault geometry of the seismogenic fault. The majority of coseismic slip occurred between 0 and 15 km with slight shallow slip deficit, which not penetrates through the inferred elastic upper crust (∼20–25 km). Our study highlights the tectonic and geometric control on fault kinematics of the Maduo earthquake.

The 5 September 2022 Mw 6.7 Luding earthquake occurred on the Moxi segment of the highly active Xianshuihe fault in eastern Tibet. Here, we constrain the coseismic slip by jointly inverting the coseismic displacements measured by Global Positioning System, seismometer and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar. Along the Moxi fault, concentrated left‐lateral strike slip extends ∼30 km along the strike above 10 km depth, producing 0.7–1.0 m shallow slip. Clustered aftershocks and slip inversions suggest that the secondary conjugate Mozigou fault may also involve the rupture. Southward rupture propagation is likely arrested by the barrier‐like fault segments of the Xianshuihe fault, characterized by high interseismic coupling (>0.6) and reduced shear stress rate (<1 kPa/yr) due to interactions with surrounding large locked asperities. The distribution of aftershocks is highly correlated with the positive coseismic Coulomb failure stress changes , which bring the adjacent asperities on the Anninghe and Daliangshan faults ∼0.2 MPa closer to failure.

The 21 May 2021 Maduo earthquake was the largest event to occur on a secondary fault in the interior of the active Bayanhar block on the north-central Tibetan plateau in the last twenty years. A detailed kinematic study of the Maduo earthquake helps us to better understand the seismogenic environments of the secondary faults within the block, and its relationship with the block-bounding faults. In this study, firstly, SAR images are used to obtain the coseismic deformation fields. Secondly, we use a strain model-based method and steepest descent method (SDM) to resolve the three-dimensional displacement components and to invert the coseismic slip distribution constrained by coseismic displacement fields, respectively. The three-dimensional displacement fields reveal a dominant left-lateral strike-slip motion, local horizontal displacement variations and widely distributed near-fault subsidence/uplift deformation. We prefer a five-segment fault slip model, with well constrained fault geometry featuring different dip angles and striking, constrained by InSAR observations. The peak coseismic slip is estimated to be ~5 m near longitude 98.9°E at a depth of ~4–7 km. Overall, the distribution of the coseismic slip on the fault is highly correlated to the measured surface displacement offsets along the entire rupture. We observe the moderate shallow slip deficit and limited afterslip deformation following the Maduo earthquake, it may indicate the effects of off-fault deformation during the earthquake and stable interseismic creep on the fault. The occurrence of the Maduo earthquake on a subsidiary fault updates the importance and the traditional estimate of the seismic hazards for the Kunlun fault.

We model the time‐dependent postseismic displacements following the 2001 Mw7.8 Kokoxili earthquake, including both GPS (2001–2002 for near‐field and 2001–2010 for far‐field) and descending‐track InSAR line‐of‐sight time series (2003–2010) to study three postseismic deformation processes. The predicted deformation patterns and magnitude from poroelastic rebound are inconsistent with the geodetic observations. Far‐field postseismic deformation (>200 km from rupture) is primarily induced by upper mantle viscoelastic relaxation beneath Tibet and the Qaidam Basin and places a lower bound on transient and steady‐state viscosities on the order of 10¹⁹–10²⁰ Pas. Shallow stress‐driven afterslip (20 km) has an amplitude of ∼1 m during the first 3 years. Our results indicate that the consideration of deep afterslip increases our estimates of transient viscosity of the lower crust beneath Tibet and the Qaidam basin for this earthquake by as much as a factor of three. Our combined model incorporating viscoelastic relaxation and afterslip suggests that the effective transient and steady‐state viscosities in the Tibetan lower crust are 5 × 10¹⁸ Pas and 4 × 10¹⁹ Pas, respectively (transient viscosity = 2 × 10¹⁸ Pas without afterslip considered), while the effective transient and steady‐state viscosities below the Qaidam Basin area are 1 × 10¹⁹ Pas and 6 × 10¹⁹ Pas (transient viscosity = 4 × 10¹⁸ Pas without afterslip considered).