Conjugate ruptures and seismotectonic implications of the 2019 Mindanao earthquake sequence inferred from Sentinel-1 InSAR data

In 2019, four strong earthquakes of Mw > 6.4 occurred successively in Mindanao, Philippines. Based on the reports from the USGS and PHIVOLCS, these earthquakes were dominated by strike-slip ruptures. Whether these earthquakes are temporally and spatially related remained unknown. We characterized the coseismic displacement fields during the earthquake sequence using an InSAR technique with Sentinel-1 SAR data. The InSAR deformation measurements convincingly reveal that the four earthquakes produced distinct coseismic displacement patterns. We estimated the source parameters of the earthquakes with a two-step inversion strategy. The optimal model suggests that the earthquake sequence resulted from the reactivation of a conjugate fault structure that involves two nearly vertical left-lateral strike-slip faults and two high-angle right-lateral strike-slip faults. We calculated Coulomb stress changes from the earthquake sequence, suggesting that the previous strong earthquakes had significant stress-encouraging effects on the following events. The regional velocities based on the GPS analysis suggest that the formation of this conjugate structure is mainly due to the westward movement of the subducting Philippine Sea Plate. This earthquake sequence provides a seismotectonic background for subsequent strong earthquakes and helps to better understand the formation mechanisms and seismotectonic implications of conjugate structure rupturing.