Fault Geometry, Slip Distribution, and Potential Triggering of the 2022 Mw 6.2 Deadly Afghanistan Earthquake Revealed from Geodetic and Weather Data

Abstract

Abstract The 22 June 2022 Mw 6.2 Khōst, Afghanistan, earthquake struck killing more than 1700 people and devastating the region. For studying this earthquake, we computed the coseismic deformation fields of the earthquake using the Sentinel-1 Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). The InSAR results show that the maximum coseismic displacement in the satellite line of sight direction reaches up to 39 cm. We determined the geometric parameters of the fault and coseismic slip distribution from these InSAR measurements. The best-fitted fault model shows that the rupture occurred on a right-lateral strike-slip fault with a strike of 203.7° and a dip of 68°. The most slip is concentrated at a shallow depth within the upper 10 km with the maximum slip of ∼3 m at 2.5 km depth. The maximum slip produced by this earthquake is significantly larger than the slip produced by several other similar earthquakes with similar magnitudes, implying that the focused shallow slip is likely the reason for the significant damage in the earthquake. The heavy rainfall was recorded during the earthquake period, which resulted in complicated fringes in coseismic interferograms close to the earthquake in time. Because a positive spatial and temporal correlation with the earthquake occurrence can be seen, the rainfall may have potential contributions to the earthquake, which deserves additional analysis in future. Combined with the potential effects of the 2015 Mw 7.5 Hindu Kush deep-seated earthquake, the seismicity in Afghanistan is the result of the ongoing subduction of the Indian plate beneath the Eurasian plate along their west boundary.