## 4 Discussion
### Spatial Relationship between Coseismic Slip, Afterslip, and Aftershocks  
The relocated aftershocks from 22 May 2021 to 30 May 2021, as referenced in [PERSON] et al. [4], are concentrated at depths of 8-13 km. For ease of visual comparison, we counted the number of aftershocks along the strike at 5 km intervals, as shown in Figure 11. We found that aftershocks rarely occur in the region of high coseismic slip between 98.6\({}^{\circ}\) E and 99\({}^{\circ}\) E (only 114 events, accounting for 9.4%). However, 377 aftershocks (accounting for 31.2%) are concentrated between 98.2\({}^{\circ}\) E and 98.6\({}^{\circ}\) E. In this area, the maximum coseismic slip is about 1.8 m, significantly lower than the peak slip in the eastern region, that is, regions with high coseismic slip tend to exhibit weak aftershock activity, which can be interpreted as the heterogeneous stress release from interseismic asperities on the fault plane. The area with peak slip represents a higher amount of coseismic stress release, leading to insufficient residual stress to trigger subsequent aftershocks. Conversely, areas with lower coseismic slip, but close to the peak rupture area, may have the potential to produce aftershocks. [PERSON] et al. [34] also reached similar conclusions, indicating that aftershocks predominantly occur in regions with lower coseismic slip. This phenomenon may be further connected to interseismic accumulated strain and the heterogeneous frictional properties on the seismogenic fault, similar to the result found in the Maule earthquake of 2010 [54]. The afterslip due to the 2021 Maduo earthquake mainly occurred at depths of 15-40 km on the segments F1 and F2, which is close to the area with increased Coulomb stress estimated by previous studies [22; 24]. The coseismic rupture is generally considered to be a rate-weakening nucleation zone, while afterslip typically occurs in the rate-strengthening zones. [PERSON] et al. [28] found that shallow afterslip resulting from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was inversely correlated with the coseismic slip distribution. Therefore, the afterslip is constrained to the downdip area of the coseismic rupture [19; 22; 24]. The cumulative afterslip during the 450 days following the mainshock is concentrated on the segment F2, ranging from 98.2\({}^{\circ}\) E to 98.8\({}^{\circ}\) E at depths of 15-40 km, with a maximum slip of approximately 0.47 m. However, [PERSON] et al. [35] found that the peak slip is located to the west of the hypocenter. On the segment F1, afterslip ranges from 97.5\({}^{\circ}\) E to 97.8\({}^{\circ}\) E at depths of 20-35 km, with a maximum slip of 0.3 m, which is deeper than the results  
Figure 10: The postseismic time series from the ascending track at four selected sites. The blue points denote the InSAR time series without seasonal signals. The red circles represent the surface deformation simulated by the afterslip model, corresponding to the 12 snapshots in Figure 7. The pink curves show the postseismic time series fitted by the logarithmic equation. reported by [PERSON] et al. [35]. The discrepancy in afterslip distributions on the different fault segments further reveals the inhomogeneous frictional properties [25]. In addition, the distribution characteristics of deep afterslip along the strike are quite similar to those of shallow aftershocks, particularly in the range of 98\({}^{\circ}\) E-98.8\({}^{\circ}\) E. In this region, there is a higher number of aftershocks corresponding to the areas of concentrated afterslip (Figure 11). We also found that the number of aftershocks along the strike exhibits semi-logarithmic migration over time (Figure S3). This spatial relationship between afterslip and aftershocks was also observed in the 2015 Mw 7.8 Pedernales (Ecuador) earthquake, suggesting that afterslip and aftershocks potentially drive each other [55]. However, the relocated aftershocks were collected during the first 8 days after the mainshock.