Seismotectonic framework. Solid barbed lines denote major tectonic lineaments (Wu et al. 2024). Seismicity: dots indicate all instrumental earthquakes occurring between January 22 and February 26 without any selection based on magnitude or depth from the United States Geological Survey catalogue (USGS 2024); red stars represent significant shocks (M > 5), including the 2024 January 22, M_W 7.0 mainshock; the green star marks the 2021 M_W 5.3 Baicheng transpressive earthquake, occurring NE of the 2024 seismic sequence on a high-angle fault segment along the front of the southern Tian Shan mountains (Yushan et al. 2022); the yellow stars are large (M > 7) historical events. Arrows show the GPS velocity field in a Eurasian reference frame, illustrating the relative motion of the Tarim basin compared to the Kazakh platform (Wang & Shen 2020). The upper inset presents a tectonic sketch of western China, with the box indicating the area of the main figure. The dashed box indicates the area of Figs 2 and 3 (upper panels). Abbreviations: KFTB = Kepingtage Fold-and Thrust Belt; STF = Southern Tianshan Fault.