Three-dimensional electrical structure and seismogenic environment of the crust–mantle in the Lushan earthquake region, China

The Longmenshan (LMS) southern section is the front of the eastwards material migration from the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. To understand whether the 2022 Ms6.1 Lushan earthquake was a strong aftershock of the 2013 Ms7.0 Lushan earthquake and why the aftershocks of the two earthquakes were concentrated relative to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, a three-dimensional electrical structural model of the Lushan earthquake region is established based on magnetotelluric (MT) array data. The model shows high-conductor layers (HCL) in the Songpan–Ganzi terrane (SGT) middle crust, Sichuan Basin (SCB) shallow surface, western Sichuan foreland depression (WSCFD) and LMS Moho. The analysis suggests that the HCL in the study area at a depth of 10 km is caused by saline fluids in the fracture zone or porous sedimentary rock voids, while the high-conductor body in the middle and lower crust and upper mantle is caused by partial melting of rocks. The Lushan earthquake area is subject to compressional deformation horizontally as the eastwards migration of Qinghai–Tibet Plateau material is blocked by the SCB and vertically by the upwards extension of high-conductor plastic material at depth. The aftershocks of the Lushan earthquake area are mainly confined within the Baoxing–Zhonglin–Daxing–Lushan high-conductor region, which has noticeable electrical structural differences compared to the overall high-resistivity structure of the LMS southern section; these differences explain why the aftershocks of the two earthquakes did not expand in the northeast and southwest directions of LMS. Because the 2022 and 2013 Lushan earthquakes both occurred in the same high-conductor region in the deep part of the Dachuan–ShuangShi fault to the Danyi blind fault, the 2022 Lushan earthquake was a strong aftershock of the 2013 Lushan earthquake in terms of electrical structural characteristics.