Studying postseismic deformation of the 2010–2011 Rigan earthquake sequence in SE Iran using geodetic data

In this paper, we study the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of the postseismic deformation of the 2010–2011 Rigan earthquake sequence which occurred at the southern termination of the East Lut fault system, southeast Iran. One-year GPS measurements after the Rigan earthquake sequence reveals right-lateral postseismic displacement along the East Chahqanbar fault and left-lateral postseismic displacement along the South Chahqanbar fault. To investigate the deformation variations in time and space, InSAR time-series of COSMO-SkyMed images is applied using the Small Baseline Subset algorithm. The results confirm a clear cumulative postseismic signal increasing to 8 mm during the first five months following the first mainshock in the direction of the coseismic displacement. The cumulative postseismic displacements are well correlated with the cumulative number of the aftershocks and their associated moment release. Considering this correlation and the observation of a sharp discontinuity along the coseismic fault in the displacement map, it is concluded that the after-slip mechanism is responsible for the observed postseismic deformation in the study region. This study is the first observation of a short-term postseismic motion in eastern Iran through geodetic data in contrast with long-lasting postseismic displacements following the earthquakes that occurred around Lut block. Modeling of the postseismic displacement results in a distributed slip pattern with a maximum slip of 0.8 m on the fault plane responsible for the 2010 Rigan coseismic deformation. This indicates that the postseismic deformation on barriers remained unbroken during the mainshock. •We investigate the postseismic deformation of the Rigan earthquake sequence using GPS data and InSAR COSMO-SkyMed images.•We estimate the cumulative signal increasing to 8 mm following the first mainshock.•We observe a maximum postseismic slip of 0.8 m on the same fault plane responsible for the earthquake.•We observe short-term and deep afterslip postseismic motion for the Rigan earthquake sequence.•We find out that the observed postseismic motion was dominantly seismic.