Plain Language Summary
Earthquake is produced by sudden shear dislocation across the fault. The geometric complexity of fault structure, such as bend, step-over, branching and bifurcation, play important roles in determining the final rupture dimension (hence the magnitude) of the earthquake, as they can easily produce stress heterogeneity on the faults. Although geological and recent space geodetic observations have well-recorded the fault geometry complexity, detailed spatial and temporal evolution of rupture through such fault segments, especially fault bifurcations, are rarely well-imaged. In this study, we integrate broadband seismic waveform and geodetic observations for the 2021 Mw7.4 Maduo earthquake in China, and process and model them with a set of tools, to produce a high resolution rupture model for the earthquake. The preferred model reveals a near constant rupture speed of 2.5 km/s throughout the entire rupture, and resolves the detailed rupture process through the bifurcated fault segments at its eastern terminal, where the termination of the rupture on the southern branch stopped the rupture on the northern branch.