The 20 April 2013 Lushan earthquake (moment magnitude Mw 6.6, surface‐wave magnitude Ms 7.0) ruptured part of the southern segment of the Longmenshan fault zone in western Sichuan, China. The Longmenshan fault zone is a tectonic boundary that separates the rigid Sichuan basin to the east and the eastern Tibetan plateau to the west. The Lushan earthquake was a typical thrust event initiated at a relatively shallow depth of about 12 km. Although this earthquake did not produce obvious surface ruptures, it still caused strong shaking around its epicenter and resulted in more than 200 deaths or missing persons, more than 10,000 injuries, and huge economic losses.

Nearly five years before this earthquake, a more devastating thrust event, the 12 May 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, occurred ∼90  km to the north and ruptured ∼300  km northeastward along the northern‐central segment of the Longmenshan fault zone. Since the Wenchuan earthquake, intensive geophysical and geological studies have been carried out in the Longmenshan fault zone and adjacent regions to better understand the cause of the Wenchuan event and its impacts. Several studies suggested an increased seismic‐hazard …