摘要：Although the Papuan fold and thrust belt (PFTB) is thought to accommodate convergence between the Pacific and Australian plates, the possible strain partitioning and its kinematic controls in the region are poorly understood. On 25 February 2018, a devastating M w 7.5 earthquake jolted the southern area of the PFTB, central Papua New Guinea. The detailed imaging of the source parameters of this large earthquake is an urgent demand for a better understanding of the tectonism in the region. Here we used spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar data to carefully determine the possible ruptured faults and associated fault geometries and further estimated the detailed slip of the 2018 M w 7.5 earthquake. We find that the earthquake involved multiple faults failure, and a four‐segment fault model can reasonably produce the complex coseismic deformation, especially the observed bimodal displacements. The earthquake was dominated by reverse fault motion, and significant slip of up to ~0.7 m was documented on faults extending at depths great than 25 km. An integrated analysis of the fracture complexities suggests that possible strain partitioning in the PFTB could be tightly coupled with regional fault geometries and lithospheric properties. Our findings on the deep brittle failures suggest that crustal shortening across the PFTB could primarily control the growth of fold and thrust belt in the central Papua New Guinea.
