The 3-D surface deformation, coseismic fault slip and after-slip of the 2010 Mw6.9 Yushu earthquake, Tibet, China

•We obtain the 3D coseismic and postseismic deformation of the 2010 Yushu earthquake.•The 3D deformation shows both conformity and complexity to sinistral slip mechanism.•Early after-slip model shows a complimentary pattern to the coseismic fault slip.•Coseismic- and after- slip indicate reduced earthquake potential of the Yushu fault.

Using SAR interferometry on C band Envisat descending track and L band ALOS ascending track SAR images, respectively, we firstly obtain two coseismic deformation fields and one postseismic deformation of the 2010 Yushu earthquake, Tibet, China. In the meanwhile, we also obtain the azimuthal coseismic deformation of the Yushu event by Multi Aperture Interferometry (MAI) technique. With the 3 components of one-dimensional coseismic InSAR measurements, we resolve the complete 3-dimensional deformation of the 2010 Yushu event, which shows conformity and complexity to left lateral slip mechanism. The horizontal deformation is basically consistent with a sinistral slip event; whereas the vertical displacement does show certain level of complexity, which we argue is indicative of local fault geometry variation. Based on the InSAR data and elastic dislocation assumption, we invert for coseismic fault slip and early after-slip of the Yushu event. Our inversion results show major coseismic left lateral strike slip with only minor thrust component. The after-slip model fills most of the slip gaps left by the coseismic fault slip and finds a complementary slip distribution to the coseismic fault slip, which is a good indicator that future earthquake potential on the Yushu segment has been significantly reduced.