<p>Coseismic surface ruptures are the most direct evidence of earthquake rupture and fault activity. Detailed characterization of the ruptures reveals the dynamic rupture processes, elucidates the fault’s frictional and stress states, and thus contributes significantly to a better seismic hazard assessment. Low-altitude remote sensing technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) LiDAR scanning and photogrammetry, enable the rapid and efficient mapping of surface ruptures in high resolution, thereby overcoming the limitation of inaccessibility in harsh and remote environments. Here, we show that for the 2010 <i>M</i>_w 7.4 El Mayor-Cucapah, Mexico earthquake in the desert, pre- and post-event differential airborne LiDAR imaging captured for the first time a distributed deformation field off the main fault. For the 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake sequence, low-altitude UAV photography reveals that inelastic coseismic deformation decreases continuously from the fault, following an inverse power law with a distance for over 20 km. Following the 2021 <i>M</i>_w 7.4 Maduo, Qinghai earthquake, we obtained 3–6 cm resolution UAV images covering the entire surface rupture, for the first time at an altitude of 4200 m, in the harsh environment of the Tibetan Plateau. Detailed surface rupture mapping based on this data demonstrated that fault orientation to the regional stress exerts a more critical role in controlling the coseismic rupture behavior than fault maturity. Low-altitude remote sensing technologies are currently and will continue to advance our understanding of dynamic earthquake rupture processes and the underlying physical mechanisms, thus playing an increasingly vital role in studies of earthquake ruptures.</p>