Deciphering stress perturbations throughout the 2025 Mw 7.1 Dingri, Southern Xizang Earthquake
The 2025 moment magnitude (M<sub>w</sub>) 7.1 Dingri earthquake in Southern Xizang, China, caused severe devastation and exhibited a complex stress evolution. Its northward unilateral rupture along the twisted, west-dipping graben edge generated ~2 MPa of dynamic stress, triggering blind coseismic slip on an east-dipping fault. Coseismic stress perturbations activated over 50 previously unmapped fault segments, mostly with aseismic slip, while also inducing an early viscoelastic response in the weak middle-to-lower crustal layer below ~20 km depth. Here we explain these behaviours by deciphering the stress perturbations through earthquake cycle observations and models. A major implication is that tracking stress evolution throughout an earthquake provides critical insights into earthquake mechanics.
Authors
- Mingzhe Lyu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0809-4885)
- Hao Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0652-3297)
- Zhangfeng Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5999-5917)
- Xinjian Shan
- Hongyu Zeng
- Shengji Wei
- Luca Dal Zilio
- Yingfeng Zhang
- Chenglong Li
Institutions
- Nanyang Technological University (SG)
- Institute of Geology and Geophysics (AZ)
- Earth Observatory of Singapore (SG)
- Institute of Geology and Geophysics (CN)
- China Earthquake Administration (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-01-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-68128-y
- Primary Topic
- earthquake and tectonic studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Strong
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Ministry of Education, India
- Bộ Giáo dục và Ðào tạo
- China Earthquake Administration
- Southern University of Science and Technology
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration