Earthquake relocation and focal mechanism inversion can provide seismogenic structure information, especially in the source area without obvious fault trace on the surface, and further reveal the deep geometry of hidden faults. The Yangbi M_S6.4 earthquake sequence recorded by Yunnan regional seismic network from May 18 to June 4, 2021 is relocated by using the double-difference location method. A total of 3 233 events, from 4 days before and 14 days after the main shock, are relocated and the b-value in the Yangbi source region is calculated accordinly. Then, using the waveform data recorded by the Yunnan and Sichuan regional broadband seismic stations, the full moment tensor solutions of 10 earthquakes (M≥4.0), including the main earthquake, are obtained using the near-field full waveform inversion method, and further the tectonic stress field is retrieved. The high-precision relocation of earthquakes shows that there are significant differences between the foreshocks and the aftershocks in the tempo-spatial distribution. The foreshocks are primarily in a belt-like distribution along the NW-SE direction, whose epicenters are in a back-and-forth migration. The aftershocks mainly occurred on asymmetric conjugate faults along NW and NE directions, and multi-groups of aftershocks with different strikes were distributed in the south end of the NW-striking seismic zone, implying the complexity of the medium and fault geometry in the focal area. The temporal distribution of the b-value shows that the b-value has a rising trend before the main earthquake, indicating that the stress accumulation in the source area had begun to release gradually at that time, which may be related to the fact that the sequence is of the foreshock-mainshock-aftershock type. After the main shock, the variation range of b-value is large, which may reflect very strong seismicity of the aftershocks and large release of the stress. The focal mechanism solutions show that the moderate earthquakes are mainly of strike-slip with a normal component and a significant non-double-couple component, which may indicate the staggered distribution of the NW- and NE-trending faults in the source region, and the earthquake rupture is not simply the slip along the fault plane. Taking into account for the above-mentioned results as well as the compressional stress field environment in nearly NS direction and the extensional environment in nearly EW direction, the seismogenic structure of Yangbi M_S6.4 earthquake is a dextral strike-slip fault, NW striking with a high-dip angle, located in the Baoshan block, which may be a secondary fault parallel to the Weixi-Qiaohou-Weishan Fault and including multi-fault branches in NE direction in the southern segment. The tempo-spatial distribution characteristics of the earthquake sequence and the diversity of the fault plane rupture are controlled by the geometric complexity of fault system in the focal area.

A M_S6.0 earthquake with shallow focal depth of 16km struck Changning County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province at 22:55: 43(Beijing Time)on 17 June 2019. Although the magnitude of the earthquake is moderate, it caused heavy casualties and property losses to Changning County and its surrounding areas. In the following week, a series of aftershocks with M_S≥4.0 occurred in the epicentral area successively. In order to better understand and analyze the seismotectonic structure and generation mechanism of these earthquakes, in this paper, absolute earthquake location by HYPOINVERSE 2000 method is conducted to relocate the main shock of M_S6.0 in Changning using the seismic phase observation data provided by Sichuan Earthquake Administration, and focal mechanism solutions for Changning M_S6.0 main shock and M_S≥4.0 aftershocks are inferred using the gCAP method with the local and regional broadband station waveforms recorded by the regional seismic networks of Sichuan Province, Yunnan Province, Chongqing Municipality, and Guizhou Province. The absolute relocation results show that the epicenter of the main shock is located at 28.35°N, 104.88°E, and it occurred at an unusual shallow depth about only 6.98km, which could be one of the most significant reasons for the heavier damage in the Changning and adjoining areas. The focal plane solution of the Changning M_S6.0 earthquake indicates that the main shock occurred at a thrust fault with a left-lateral strike-slip component. The full moment tensor solution provided by gCAP shows that it contains a certain percentage of non-double couple components. After the occurrence of the main shock, a series of medium and strong aftershocks with M_S≥4.0 occurred continuously along the northwestern direction, the fault plane solutions for those aftershocks show mostly strike-slip and thrust fault-type. It is found that the mode of focal mechanism has an obvious characteristic of segmentation in space, which reflects the complexity of the dislocation process of the seismogenic fault. It also shows that the Changning earthquake sequences occurred in the shallow part of the upper crust. Combining with the results from the seismic sounding profile in Changning anticline, which is the main structure in the focal area, this study finds that the existence of several steep secondary faults in the core of Changning anticline is an important reason for the diversity of focal mechanism of aftershock sequences. The characteristics of regional stress field is estimated using the STRESSINVERSE method by the information of focal mechanism solutions from our study, and the results show that the Changning area is subject to a NEE oriented maximum principal stress field with a very shallow dipping and near-vertical minimum principal stress, which is not associated with the results derived from other stress indicators. Compared with the direction of the maximum principal compressive stress axis in the whole region, the direction of the stress field in the focal area rotates from the NWW direction to the NEE direction. The Changning M_S6.0 earthquake locates in the area with complex geological structure, where there are a large number of small staggered fault zones with unstable geological structure. Combining with the direction of aftershocks distribution in Changning area, we infer that the Changning M_S6.0 earthquake is generated by rupturing of the pre-existing fault in the Changning anticline under the action of the overall large stress field, and the seismogenic fault is a high dip-angle thrust fault with left-lateral strike-slip component, trending NW.

A strong earthquake with magnitude M_S6.2 hit Hutubi, Xinjiang at 13:15:03 on December 8th, 2016(Beijing Time). In order to better understand its mechanism, we performed centroid moment tensor inversion using the broadband waveform data recorded at stations from the Xinjiang regional seismic network by employing gCAP method. The best double couple solution of the M_S6.2 mainshock on December 8th, 2016 estimated from local and near-regional waveforms is strike:271°, dip:64ånd rake:90° for nodal plane I, and strike:91°, dip:26ånd rake:90°for nodal plane Ⅱ; the centroid depth is about 21km and the moment magnitude(M_W)is 5.9. ISO, CLVD and DC, the full moment tensor, of the earthquake accounted for 0.049%, 0.156% and 99.795%, respectively. The share of non-double couple component is merely 0.205%. This indicates that the earthquake is of double-couple fault mode, a typical tectonic earthquake featuring a thrust-type earthquake of squeezing property.The double difference(HypoDD)technique provided good opportunities for a comparative study of spatio-temporal properties and evolution of the aftershock sequences, and the earthquake relocation was done using HypoDD method. 486 aftershocks are relocated accurately and 327 events are obtained, whose residual of the RMS is 0.19, and the standard deviations along the direction of longitude, latitude and depth are 0.57km, 0.6km and 1.07km respectively. The result reveals that the aftershocks sequence is mainly distributed along the southern marginal fault of the Junggar Basin, extending about 35km to the NWW direction as a whole; the focal depths are above 20km for most of earthquakes, while the main shock and the biggest aftershock are deeper than others. The depth profile shows a relatively steep dip angle of the seismogenic fault plane, and the aftershocks dipping northward. Based on the spatial and temporal distribution features of the aftershocks, it is considered that the seismogenic fault plane may be the nodal plane I and the dip angle is about 271°. The structure of the Hutubi earthquake area is extremely complicated. The existing geological structure research results show that the combination zone between the northern Tianshan and the Junggar Basin presents typical intracontinental active tectonic features. There are numerous thrust fold structures, which are characterized by anticlines and reverse faults parallel to the mountains formed during the multi-stage Cenozoic period. The structural deformation shows the deformation characteristics of longitudinal zoning, lateral segmentation and vertical stratification. The ground geological survey and the tectonic interpretation of the seismic data show that the recoil faults are developed near the source area of the Hutubi earthquake, and the recoil faults related to the anticline are all blind thrust faults. The deep reflection seismic profile shows that there are several listric reverse faults dipping southward near the study area, corresponding to the active hidden reverse faults; At the leading edge of the nappe, there are complex fault and fold structures, which, in this area, are the compressional triangular zone, tilted structure and northward bedding backthrust formation. Integrating with geological survey and seismic deep soundings, the seismogenic fault of the M_S6.2 earthquake is classified as a typical blind reverse fault with the opposite direction close to the southern marginal fault of the Junggar Basin, which is caused by the fact that the main fault is reversed by a strong push to the front during the process of thrust slip. Moreover, the Manas earthquake in 1906 also occurred near the southern marginal fault in Junggar, and the seismogenic mechanism was a blind fault. This suggests that there are some hidden thrust fault systems in the piedmont area of the northern Tianshan Mountains. These faults are controlled by active faults in the deep and contain multiple sets of active faults.