Seismogenic characteristics of the 2025 Dingri M_s 6.8 earthquake: Insights from GNSS observations

Abstract

This study investigates the seismogenic characteristics of the 2025 Dingri M_S 6.8 earthquake through multi-parametric GNSS analyses of velocity field, strain rate evolution and displacement patterns across pre-seismic and co-seismic phases. Our findings demonstrate spatiotemporally heterogeneous crustal deformation exhibiting kinematic precursors correlating with subsequent rupture propagation. The epicentral region exhibited prolonged N-S compressional strain accumulation accompanied by accelerated E-W extensional deformation and progressive counterclockwise rotation of principal strain axes three years prior, indicating enhanced local normal fault activities. Co-seismic observations delineate significant displacement domains, with the XZSJ (∼95 ​mm) site documenting the largest northeastward motion, consistent with rupture propagation along secondary N-E trending structures. Co-seismic strain analysis identifies concentrated seismic moment release primarily west of the Xainza-Dinggye Fault and north of the Southern Qinghai-Xizang Detachment Fault system, displaying normal fault kinematics in agreement with the seismic source mechanism. The co-seismic strain partitioning pattern shows critical implications for regional N-S trending normal fault system, necessitating sustained geodetic monitoring to advance understanding of seismic cycle deformation in this area.

Keywords

Dingri M_s6.8 earthquake / GNSS / GAMIT/GLOBK / Pre- and co-seismic deformation

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Yu Li: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Software, Project administration, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Data curation. Yuebing Wang: Resources, Methodology, Data curation, Conceptualization. Yinxing Shao: Software, Data curation. Hongbo Shi: Validation, Funding acquisition. Tan Wang: Resources, Data curation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Author agreement and acknowledgment

All authors agree for this publication. I am grateful to all the contributors to GAMIT/GLOBK software. GAMIT/GLOBK provides free download of authorization (http://geoweb.mit.edu/). The figures were drawn by GMT (Wessel et al., 2013). Many thanks to the reviewers and editor-in-chief for their valuable feedbacks. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42374010, 42004010).

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