We use interferometric synthetic aperture radar （InSAR） and broadband seismic waveform data to estimate a source model of the 11th July, 2004 M W 6.2 Zhongba earthquake, Tibet of China. This event occurred within the seismically active zone of southwestern Tibetan Plateau where the east-west extension of the upper crust is observed. Because of limitations in one pair of InSAR data available, there are trade-offs among centroid depth, rupture area and amount of slip. Available seismic data tightly constrain the focal mechanism and centroid depth of the earthquake but not the horizontal location. Together, two complementary data sets can be used to identify the actual fault plane, better constrain the slip model and event location. We first use regional seismic waveform to estimate point source mechanism, then InSAR data is used to obtain better location. Finally, a joint inversion of teleseismic P-waves and InSAR data is performed to obtain a distributed model. Our preferred point source mechanism indicates a seismic moment of ～2.2×10 18 N·m （～M W 6.2）, a fault plane solution of 171° （342 ° ）/42 ° （48 ° ）/-83 ° （-97 ° ）, corresponding to strike/dip/rake, and a depth of 11 km. The fault plane with strike of 171 ？ and dip of 42° is identified as the ruptured fault with the aid of InSAR data. The preferred source model features compact area of slips between depth of 5–11 km and 10 km along strike with maximum slip amplitude of about 1.5 m.
Ground deformation as observed with GPS or InSAR has been broadly inverted in constraining source parameter of earthquakes. However, for earthquakes occurring beneath sedimentary basins, the very slow sub-surface shear velocity （v S , down to 200 m/s） may cause substantial bias to earthquake source inversion if simple crustal models are used. For Bohai basin, Sichuan basin and rock-sites, we test effects of sub-surface shear velocity structure on ground deformation, and find that up to a factor of 2 overestimate of seismic moment could be generated by the basin structures. Therefore, the very slow sub-surface velocity has to be taken into account before accurate source inversion can be applied.
With the 2008 Ms6.1 Panzhihua earthquake as a case study, we demonstrate that the focal depth of the main shock can be well constrained with two approaches： （1） using the depth phase sPL and （2） using full waveform inversion of local and teleseismic data. We also show that focal depths can be well constrained using the depth phase sPL with single broadband seismic station. Our study indicates that the main shock is located at a depth of ii kin, much shallower than those from other studies, confirming that the earthquake occurs in upper crust. Aftershocks are located in the depth range of 11 16 kin, which is consistent with a ruptured near vertical fault whose width is about 10 km, as expected for an Ms6.1 earthquake.
