Co-seismic ionospheric and deformation signals on the 2008 magnitude 8.0 Wenchuan Earthquake from GPS observations

Abstract

The 8.0 magnitude Wenchuan Earthquake occurred at the Longmenshan Fault along the eastern boundary between the Tibetan Plateau and the western Sichuan Basin in southwestern China on 12 May 2008, killing tens of thousands of people in several cities along the western Sichuan Basin. In this paper, co-seismic ionospheric and deformation signals from the mainshock of this event are extracted from national global positioning system (GPS) network observations, which provide unique insights into this event. The co-seismic deformation moves towards the earthquake epicentre, and the largest magnitude reaches 2.3 m in Beichuan. The total moment of the co-seismic rupture is 2.4 × 1021 nm, equivalent to a magnitude of 8.1 and nearly identical to the seismological estimate. Furthermore, co-seismic ionospheric disturbances indicate a shock-acoustic wave propagation at a mean velocity of about 600 m s−1 towards the rupture direction.