Characteristic Slip of Strong Earthquakes Along the Yishu Fault Zone in East China Evidenced by Offset Landforms

The Yishu fault zone (YSFZ) is the most active fault in eastern China, and it is the location of an M 8.5 earthquake that occurred in 1668. However, topography and landforms in this area have been greatly altered by human activity during the previous three to four decades, which makes assessment of past earthquakes difficult. We therefore used a set of remote sensing images captured in the 1960s to evaluate the single‐event and multievent cumulative offsets of streams along the fault. The local landforms have preserved the Holocene seismic offsets well despite the moderately humid climate in which the local landforms have evolved rapidly. Geomorphic markers associated with 401 systematically dextrally offset streams were analyzed and measured. These offset markers are considered to record seismic rupture processes. Cumulative offset probability densities were analyzed according to slip distributions along various subsections of the YSFZ. Four strong paleoearthquakes in addition to the 1668 earthquake were revealed by offset density peaks within the YSFZ, a finding that differs from those of previous studies. The average offset of the 1668 event is approximately 9 m. The cumulative offsets of the other four paleoseismic events are essentially multiples of the latest event. A single event ruptured more than 200 km of discontinuous fault traces. The similarity of the previous five earthquakes implies that rupturing of the YSFZ has followed a characteristic slip model during the Holocene, with a right‐lateral slip rate of 2.2–2.6 mm/yr. We expect that the YSFZ is not due for another large earthquake for several thousand years. Key Points Historical remote sensing images reveal 401 dextrally offset streams along the Yishu fault zone Statistical analysis of the offset density reveals at least five paleoearthquakes Large paleoearthquakes in the Yishu fault zone produced an average offset of approximately 9 m