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Makran Subduction Zone (MZS) is important as this region lies on both sides of the border of Iran and Pakistan along the coastline. Makran Subduction complex has pervasive seismicity and diverse focal mechanism solutions and being in the vicinity of Triple Junction where three major Tectonic plates; Arabian, Eurasian and Indian plates are connecting. Both of Chabahar and Gwadar ports are located in this vicinity, on which China is investing for CPEC, Belt and Road Initiative. The whole world is looking at these projects of Makran, as this may define and transform the future of trade. Hence Geoscience point of view is notable as well in consideration for the successful execution of these projects. Several Microplates/blocks have been proposed around the vicinity MSZ and Indian-Eurasian Plate boundary including the Ormara microplate, Lut Block, Helmand Block, and Pakistan-Iran Makran microplate (PIMM). The purpose of this review is to shed light on PIMM. Despite previous researches related to Makran, still many researchers are working to solve puzzles related to the complexity of MSZ. It is divided into Eastern and Western Makran due to seismicity and North to South into four parts based on stratigraphy, thrusts and folds. This review aims to give suggestions for the hypothesis on PIMM which was inferred as a separate microplate.

Seismic sequences are a powerful tool to locally infer geometrical and mechanical properties of faults and fault systems. In this study, we provided detailed location and characterization of events of the 3–7 July 2020 Irpinia sequence (southern Italy) that occurred at the northern tip of the main segment that ruptured during the 1980 Irpinia earthquake. Using an autocorrelation technique, we detected more than 340 events within the sequence, with local magnitude ranging between −0.5 and 3.0. We thus provided double difference locations, source parameter estimation, and focal mechanisms determination for the largest quality events. We found that the sequence ruptured an asperity with a size of about 800 m, along a fault structure having a strike compatible with the one of the main segments of the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, and a dip of 50–55° at depth of 10.5–12 km and 60–65° at shallower depths (7.5–9 km). Low stress drop release (average of 0.64 MPa) indicates a fluid-driven initiation mechanism of the sequence. We also evaluated the performance of the earthquake early warning systems running in real-time during the sequence, retrieving a minimum size for the blind zone in the area of about 15 km.