Relationship between Crustal Deformation and Thermal Anomalies in the 2022 Ninglang Ms 5.5 Earthquake in China: Clues from InSAR and RST
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The deals with the use of the InSAR in seismology. The topic is now very common and Authors, as regards the part of the displacement of the ground, however, deal with the problem adequately.
In my opinion, the part relating to thermal anomalies is more problematic.
In particular, it is not clear how these thermal anomalies are to be associated with earthquakes.
In the introductory geological part, the discussion of the depth of the hypocenters of the earthquakes is completely missing: 10 km or more? This would be useful in order to also explain how the thermal anomalies of the fault rupture produced in depth can be transmitted to the surface. In the text Authors report that earthquakes can be predicted with this method, therefore a discussion that determines the velocity with which thermal anomalies travel underground to the surface would be useful.
I believe that if the authors expand this part by increasing the discussion of thermal anomalies and how they are related to earthquakes, which is completely absent, the article can contribute to a new application of satellite data
Author Response
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Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The reviewed paper concerns with the multi-source remote sensing technology that became as a powerful tool for long time series monitoring of earthquakes and active ruptures, which mainly focuses on single crustal deformation and thermal anomaly. The reviewed paper aims to reveal the crustal deformation and thermal anomaly characteristics of the Ninglang earthquake by using both Interferometric InSAR and RST technologies.
The paper can be recommended for publication, after minor corrections.
1. What is the "thermal anomaly frequency distribution"? What parameter "frequency" is referred to?
2. Generally, geophysical data contain a large amount of high frequency noise in both space and time domains, which requirs application of signal filtration. Did authors use data filtering prior to manipulate with the data?
3. What is the main reason for a difference between coseismic profiles in Figs. 5?
Author Response
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Reviewer 3 Report
I have no comments. It can be accepetd as it is.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer:
We gratefully thank you for your time spend reviewing this manuscript. On behalf of my co-authors, I would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation to you your approval of our manuscript!
Reviewer 4 Report
(1) The article focuses on the relationship between crustal deformation and thermal anomalies in an earthquake. The article describes the two technologies in explicit content but does not give a specific conclusion on the quantitative relationship between them.
（2）In addition, this paper aims at an Ms5.5 earthquake. Is there an apparent crustal deformation and a thermal anomaly in such a small earthquake? Whether the author has studied other earthquakes with a magnitude above 6.5.
（3）The InSAR deformation before the earthquake is small, and the comparison of thermal anomalies before the earthquake is of little significance. It can be aimed at the period with large deformation after the earthquake.
（4） Fig.1 "the northwestern Sichuan subblock" to "the northwestern Yunnan subblock."
（5）The first and second paragraphs in 3.1 need to be refined
(6) Figure 5. The location of the fault needs to be given
(7) Figure 6 and 8, The three deformation fields in pre-, co-, and post-seismic stages should be solved independently.
（8）Figure 7 and Figure 9, where are the four points A, B, C, and D.
（9） The focal mechanism solution in 5.1 should be placed in the previous introduction.
（10） Again, in the discussion section, what is the quantitative relationship between the two physical quantities, and whether other earthquakes have similar phenomena?
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 4 Report
The author made a good response to my comments and suggested minor revision and accept，additionally， In Fig.1 the "northwestern Sichuan subblock" should be "northwestern Yunnan subblock"
Author Response
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