## 5 Discussion
### Glacier Stability and Postseismic Risks  
The epicenter of the Luding earthquake was close to the southeastern section of the Xianshuihie fault zone. The Xianshuihie fault is located at the strike-slip boundary between the Bayan Har block and the Sichuan-Yunnan block and intersects with the Longmenshan fault and Anninghe fault to form the famous \"Y-shaped\" fault zone in western Sichuan [36]. Relevant studies have shown that, under the influence of the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes on the Longmenshan fault in 2008 and 2013, the Coulomb stress near the Xianshuihie fault increased significantly, and the strain energy accumulated in the Kangding-Shimian section was released in this earthquake [37]. The fault zone caused the coseismic activity to result in deformation in Mt. Gongga glaciers, and the glacier slip rate changed after the earthquake. In this paper, the glacier slip rate for Mt. Gongga in the short postseismic period is studied. Figure 10 shows the time series for the glacier slip rate at four selected sites (P1-P4) for four months after the earthquake. The numerical values represent the deformation results for each epoch relative to the previous epoch, the null values were averaged over the upper and lower epochs, and the calculated results were converted to units of days for analysis. As shown in Figure 10, the flow rate obtained at point P1 on 7 September 2022 was approximately 0.2 m/d, fluctuating up to 0.45 m/d and then decreasing to the preseismic flow rate. The flow velocities obtained at points P2 and P4 on 7 September 2022 were approximately 0.33 m/d, gradually increasing to 0.55 m/d and 0.5 m/d under the influence of the Luding earthquake and then decreasing to the preseismic flow velocity or slightly above. The flow velocity at point P3 obtained on 7 September 2022 was approximately 0.37 m/d, fluctuating up to 0.73 m/d and then decreasing to 0.6 m/d, slightly higher than the preseismic flow velocity. In general, the postseismic motion rates at all four points showed a trend of obvious acceleration, reaching a peak in early November and then slowly decreasing to the preseismic level. Generally, postseismic glacier sliding has a large and significant deformation gradient at the early stages and then gradually decays with time. [PERSON] et al. monitored two large-scale ice avalanches on Hailuogou Glacier before the \"9.5\" Luding earthquake, which were captured by an automated observation camera on 8-9 August and 1-4 September. The ice avalanche that occurred on 8 and 9 August covered an area of 0.17 km\({}^{2}\), and the avalanche distance was 553 m. Between 1 and 4 September, the deposition area was approximately 0.2 km\({}^{2}\), and the avalanche distance was approximately 608 m [18]. These two ice avalanche events may have unloaded a large amount of ice and prevented a larger ice avalanche from being triggered during the earthquake activity. According to the China Seismological Network Center, an M\({}_{5}\) 5.0 earthquake occurred on 22 October 2022, Beijing time, in Luding county, Ganzi prefecture (29.61\({}^{\circ}\)N, 102.03\({}^{\circ}\)E), which was an aftershock of the 2022 Luding earthquake. The increase in flow velocity at each selected in late October is suspected to be influenced by aftershocks, where the relatively stable ice in the upper  
Figure 10: Time-series results for the glacier velocity field at selected sample points. icefall flowed rapidly, pushing the ice downstream and causing the glaciers to flow faster. Through the comparative analysis of the movement velocity of the glaciers before and after the earthquake, the preliminary interpretation is that the direct impact of the earthquake on the glaciers was mainly concentrated on the glaciers at the ridge of Mt. Gongga and in Hailuogou, the direct impact on the glaciers at the back edge of Mt. Gongga was small, and a large continuous deformation area has not yet been formed. Generally, the glaciers are still stable.