Tectonic research of the Tibetan Plateau has long focused on its deformation style and mechanisms. The 2008 Mw7.9 Wenchuan earthquake ruptured the Longmen Shan fault located at the eastern rim of the plateau and excited a viscoelastic response of the lithosphere. We infer a three‐dimensional (3D) rheological structure of eastern Tibet from modeling nine years of postseismic displacements observed by GPS. Our solution provides tight constraints on the lower‐crustal and upper‐mantle steady‐state viscosities of the Songpan‐Ganzi Terrane as (5.0 ± 0.7) × 10¹⁸ and (1.3 ± 0.3) × 10¹⁹ Pa s, respectively, consistent with a “jelly sandwich” model of Tibet, but not with some crustal channel flow models featuring much lower viscosities. The inferred lower‐crustal and upper‐mantle transient viscosities are (5.0 ± 1.3) × 10¹⁷ and (5.0 ± 1.5) × 10¹⁸ Pa s, respectively, suggesting nonlinear deformation mechanisms. The adjacent West Qinling and Sichuan blocks feature an order‐of‐magnitude higher rheological strength, which is consistent with the changes in the crustal material properties and interseismic deformation style across the East Kunlun‐Tazang and Longmen Shan faults. Our results enable us to propose a conceptual 3D tectonic deformation model, in which the eastward extrusion of Tibet is absorbed in the Songpan‐Ganzi crust mainly by E‐W shortening and N‐S extension, accommodated through faulting of conjugate strike‐slip faults in the upper crust and distributed shear in the lower crust.

A new monoterpene glycoside named as pedivertoside D (1), together with 13 known compounds (2–14, resp.) were isolated from the whole plant of Pedicularis verticillata L. The new compound was identified as (2E,6E,5R)-5,8-dihydrooxy-2,6-dimethyl-3,7-octadienyl-β-D-glucopyranoside by spectroscopic methods including 2 D-NMR techniques. The known compounds were determined spectroscopically and compared with previously reported spectral data. Compounds 6 and 9 exhibited anticomplementary effects against the classical pathway (CP) with CH₅₀ values of 0.07 mM and 0.23 mM, respectively, which are plausible candidates for developing potent anti-complementary agents from this plant.

Seasonal variations are observed in GPS time series, but are not included in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) models. Unmodeled seasonal variations at sites used for reference frame alignment are aliased into the reference frame parameters and bias all coordinates in the transformed solution. We augment ITRF2008 with seasonal loading models based either on Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) measurements or a suite of models for atmospheric pressure, continental hydrology, and nontidal ocean loading. We model the seasonal components using either annual and semiannual terms or a nonparametric approach. When we include a seasonal variation model, the weighted root-mean-square misfit after seven-parameter transformation decreases for 70–90% of the daily GPS solutions depending on the network and seasonal model used, relative to a baseline case using ITRF2008. When seasonal variations are included in the reference frame solution, the observed seasonal variations are more consistent with the GRACE-based model at 80–85% of the GPS sites that were not used in the frame alignment. The suite of forward models performs nearly as well as the GRACE-based model for North America, but substantially worse for other parts of the world. We interpret these findings to mean that the use of ITRF2008 without seasonal terms causes the amplitude of seasonal variations in the coordinate time series to be damped down relative to the true loading deformation and that the observed GPS time series are more consistent with a TRF model that includes seasonal variations. At present, a seasonal model derived from GRACE captures seasonal variations more faithfully than one based on hydrologic models.

The Pishan, Xinjiang, earthquake on 3 July 2015 is the one of largest events (M_w 6–7) that has occurred along the western Kunlun Shan, northwestern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in recent time. It involved blind thrusting at a shallow depth beneath the range front, providing a rare chance to gain insights into the interaction between the Tarim Basin and the Tibetan Plateau. Here we present coseismic ground displacements acquired by high‐resolution ALOS‐2 SAR imagery and derived from GPS resurveys on several near‐field geodetic markers after the event. We observed a maximum displacement exceeding 10 cm in the epicentral region. Analysis of the data based on a finite fault model indicates that coseismic slip occurred on a subsurface plane of 22 km × 8 km in size with a dip of about 27° to the north and a strike of 114°, representing partial break of one ramp fault buried in Paleozoic strata at 8–16 km depths beneath the foothill of the western Kunlun Shan. This blind rupture is characterized largely by a compact thrusting patch with a peak slip of 0.63 m, resulting in a stress drop of 2.3 MPa. The source model yields a geodetic moment of 5.05 × 10¹⁸ N · m, corresponding to M_w 6.4. The Pishan earthquake suggests a northward migration of deformation front of the Tibetan Plateau onto the Tarim Basin. Our finding highlights slip along ramp‐décollement faults to build up the western Kunlun Shan as the Tarim slab is subducting beneath western Tibet.