The isolated ~680 km deep 30 May 2015 MW 7.9 Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands earthquake Deep-focus earthquakes, located in very high-pressure conditions 300 to 700 km below the Earth's surface within sinking slabs of relatively cold oceanic lithosphere, are mysterious phenomena. The largest recorded deep-focus earthquake (M W 7.9) in the Izu-Bonin slab struck on 30 May 2015 beneath the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands, isolated from prior seismicity by over 100 km in depth, and followed by only a few small aftershocks. Globally, this is the deepest (680 km centroid depth) event with M W ≥ 7.8 in the seismological record. Seismicity indicates along-strike contortion of the Izu-Bonin slab, with horizontal flattening near a depth of 550 km in the Izu region and rapid steepening to near-vertical toward the south above the location of the 2015 event. This event was exceptionally well-recorded by seismic stations around the world, allowing detailed constraints to be placed on the source process. Analyses of a large global data set of P, SH and pP seismic phases using short-period back-projection, subevent directivity, and broadband finite-fault inversion indicate that the mainshock ruptured a shallowly-dipping fault plane with patchy slip that spread over a distance of ∼40 km with a multi-stage expansion rate (∼5+ km/s down-dip initially, ∼3 km/s up-dip later). During the 17 s total rupture duration the radiated energy was ∼3.3 × 10 16 J and the stress drop was ∼38 MPa. The radiation efficiency is moderate (0.34), intermediate to that of the 1994 Bolivia and 2013 Sea of Okhotsk M W 8.3 deep earthquakes, indicating that source processes of very large deep earthquakes sample a wide range of behavior from dissipative, more viscous failure to very brittle failure. The isolated occurrence of the event, much deeper than the apparently thermally-bounded distribution of Bonin-slab seismicity above 600 km depth, suggests that localized stress concentration associated with the pronounced deformation of the Izu-Bonin slab and proximity to the 660-km phase transition likely played a dominant role in generating this major earthquake.

The rupture history of the 20 April 2013 Mw 6.6 Lushan (China) earthquake is constrained by inverting waveforms of local strong motion, teleseismic broadband body waves, and long‐period surface waves. This earthquake ruptured a blind thrust fault oriented N210°E (along the Longmenshan fault zone) and dipping 40° to the NW. The inverted slip distribution is heterogeneous, dominated by a slip patch with a roughly right triangular shape, which spans a depth range of 5–20 km and accounts for two thirds of the total seismic moment (8.9 × 1018 N m). The rupture initiated roughly at the middle of the triangle's hypotenuse and, during the first 4 s, propagated mainly in along‐strike and downdip directions, toward a peak slip of 1.2 m. Despite a large number of fatalities and economic loss, the estimated static and apparent stress drops of the Lushan earthquake are 1.5 MPa and 0.35 MPa, considerably low with respect to other similar intraplate earthquakes.

Exploring the subsurface structure and stratification of Mars advances our understanding of Martian geology, hydrological evolution and palaeoclimatic changes, and has been a main task for past and continuing Mars exploration missions1–10. Utopia Planitia, the smooth plains of volcanic and sedimentary strata that infilled the Utopia impact crater, has been a prime target for such exploration as it is inferred to have hosted an ancient ocean on Mars11–13. However, 45 years have passed since Viking-2 provided ground-based detection results. Here we report an in situ ground-penetrating radar survey of Martian subsurface structure in a southern marginal area of Utopia Planitia conducted by the Zhurong rover of the Tianwen-1 mission. A detailed subsurface image profile is constructed along the roughly 1,171 m traverse of the rover, showing an approximately 70-m-thick, multi-layered structure below a less than 10-m-thick regolith. Although alternative models deserve further scrutiny, the new radar image suggests the occurrence of episodic hydraulic flooding sedimentation that is interpreted to represent the basin infilling of Utopia Planitia during the Late Hesperian to Amazonian. While no direct evidence for the existence of liquid water was found within the radar detection depth range, we cannot rule out the presence of saline ice in the subsurface of the landing area.

Rupture history of the 2016 Mw 7.0 Kumamoto earthquake is constrained by using the waveforms of strong motion observations, teleseismic broadband body waves, and long‐period surface waves. Its fault geometry is modeled with Hinagu (orienting 205° and dipping 73°) and Futagawa (orienting 235° and dipping 60°), two segments. The result reconciles the difference between moment tensor solutions and the surface fault trace. It reveals a complex rupture process that initiated on the Hinagu segment in dextral motion, propagated northeastward unilaterally, and after 15 s ceased near Aso volcano with normal fault motion. The average slip, rise time, and slip rate are 1.8 m, 2.0 s, and 1.2 m/s, respectively. The rupture broke through an ~30° fault intersection without notable delay, which can be a result of dynamic “unclamping.” The northeast boundary of the largest asperity might mark the bottom of the seismogenic zone, which becomes shallower gradually near Aso volcano.

Seismology plays an important role in characterizing potential underground nuclear tests. Using broad-band digital seismic data from Northeast China, South Korea and Japan, we investigated the properties of the recent seismic event occurred in North Korea on 2016 January 6. Using a relative location method and choosing the previous 2006 explosion as the master event, the 2016 event was located within the North Korean nuclear test site, with its epicentre at latitude 41.3003°N and longitude 129.0678°E, approximately 900 m north and 500 m west of the previous event on 2013 February 12. Based on the error ellipse, the relocation uncertainty was approximately 70 m. Using the P/S spectral ratios, including Pg/Lg, Pn/Lg and Pn/Sn, as the discriminants, we identify the 2016 event as an explosion rather than an earthquake. The body-wave magnitude calculated from regional wave Lg is mb(Lg) equal to 4.7 ± 0.2. Adopting an empirical magnitude–yield relation, and assuming that the explosion is fully coupled and detonated at a normally scaled depth, we find that the seismic yield is about 4 kt, with the uncertainties allowing a range from 2 to 8 kt.

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The anomalies of electric-magnetic field and self-potential before earthquakes are important precursory phenomena. A simulating experiment study on the variations in ultra-low frequency (ULF) magnetic field and self-potential during rock cracking was carried out in a magnetic field-free space. The results revealing in detail the whole process of the occurrences of electric and magnetic anomalies are significant for understanding the microscopic mechanism of ULF electric and magnetic signals. The experiment indicated that at the initial stage the slow changes in strain, self-potential and magnetic field with small amounts appeared firstly near the source of initial cracking, and then extended as the crack developed on. In the time domain, the self-potential anomaly emerged first and ULF magnetic field changes arose then. The shape of the ULF electric and magnetic anomaly varied obviously in early-, mid-and late-term of the test. The authors attributed the pulse-like changes of self-potential to the generation and movement of the accumulated electric charges during the cracking caused by charge separation on the crack tips within the sample. While the magnetic pulses of shorter-period at the last stage of the test, may be induced by instantaneous electric current of the accumulated charge during the cracking acceleration. The technical method and the observational results of this experiment are given in detail and the microscopic mechanism of electric and magnetic precursors before earthquake are discussed in the present paper as well.