Fine relocation, mechanism, and tectonic indications of middle-small earthquakes in the Central Tibetan Plateau

The medium-small earthquakes that occurred in the middle part of Tibetan Plateau (32°N–36°N, 90°E–93°E) from August 2016 to June 2017 were relocated using the absolute earthquake location method Hypo2000. Compared to the reports of Chinese Seismological Networks, our relocation results are more clustered on the whole, the horizontal location differences exceed 10 km, and the focal depths are concentrated in 0–8 km, which indicates that the upper crust inside the Tibetan Plateau is tectonically active. In June 2017 altogether eight earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 took place; their relocated epicenters are concentrated around Gêladaindong. The relocation results of M<3.0 small earthquakes also showed obvious differences. Therefore, we used the CAP method to invert for the focal mechanisms of theM ≥3.0 earthquakes; results generally tally with the surface geological structures, indicating that the Tibetan Plateau is still under the strong compressional force from the India Plate. Among them the eight earthquakes that occurred near Gêladaindong in June 2017 are all of normal fault type or with some strike-slip at the same time; based on previous research results we conjecture that these events are intense shallow crust responses to deep crust-mantle activities.