The subduction-thrust earthquake cycle can be simplified into two stages:

• Plate convergence is on-going but the two plates are locked over some width of the subduction thrust fault, resulting in both uplift and horizontal shortening of the overlying plate margin;
• the inland extent of the deformation and the location of the areas of maximum deformation are determined by the extent and the location of the locked zone; conversely, the width and location of the locked or seismogenic zone can thus be constrained from the patterns of surface deformation.

• once the accumulating stress exceeds the strength of the fault, the locked zone fails and a great earthquake occurs;
• during the rupture, stored elastic strain is released resulting in coseismic subsidence & horizontal extension in those region where slow uplift & horizontal shortening had accumulated.