Relocation of the M 8.0 Wenchuan earthquake and its aftershock sequence

We relocated M8.0 Wenchuan earthquake and 2706 aftershocks with M⩾2.0 using double-difference algorithm and obtained relocations of 2553 events. To reduce the influence of lateral variation in crustal and upper mantle velocity structure, we used different velocity models for the east and west side of Longmenshan fault zone. In the relocation process, we added seismic data from portable seismic stations close to the shocks to constrain focal depths. The precisions in E-W, N-S, and U-D directions after relocation are 0.6, 0.7, and 2.5 km respectively. The relocation results show that the aftershock epi-centers of Wenchuan earthquake were distributed in NE-SW direction, with a total length of about 330 km. The aftershocks were concentrated on the west side of the central fault of Longmenshan fault zone, excluding those on the north of Qingchuan, which obviously deviated from the surface fault and passed through Pingwu-Qingchuan fault in the north. The dominant focal depths of the aftershocks are between 5 and 20 km, the average depth is 13.3 km, and the depth of the relocated main shock is 16.0 km. The depth profile reveals that focal depth distribution in some of the areas is characterized by high-angle westward dipping. The rupture mode of the main shock features reverse faulting in the south, with a large strike-slip component in the north. Supported by the Basic Research Project of Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration (Grant No. DQJB08Z03)