Late Quaternary slip rate of the Aksay Segment and its rapidly decreasing gradient along the Altyn Tagh Fault

Constraining the fault slip rate on a fault can reveal the strain accumulation and partitioning pattern. The Aksay segment, the eastern segment of the Altyn Tagh fault, as the starting area where the slip rate of the Altyn Tagh fault decreases, is a strain partitioning zone. The spatial and temporal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geosphere (Boulder, Colo.) Colo.), 2020-12, Vol.16 (6), p.1538-1557
Main Authors: Liu Jinrui, Liu Jinrui, Ren Zhikun, Ren Zhikun, Zheng Wenjun, Zheng Wenjun, Min Wei, Min Wei, Li Zhigang, Li Zhigang, Zheng Gang, Zheng Gang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
absolute age
Aksay China
Aksay Segment
alkaline earth metals
Altyn Tagh Fault
Asia
Be-10
beryllium
Cenozoic
China
cosmogenic elements
digital terrain models
Far East
faults
Gansu China
geochronology
Holocene
isotopes
lithostratigraphy
metals
Monte Carlo analysis
optically stimulated luminescence
Pleistocene
Qilian Mountains
Quaternary
radioactive isotopes
slip rates
statistical analysis
strain
Structural geology
Subei China
tectonics
uncertainty
upper Pleistocene
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Summary:Constraining the fault slip rate on a fault can reveal the strain accumulation and partitioning pattern. The Aksay segment, the eastern segment of the Altyn Tagh fault, as the starting area where the slip rate of the Altyn Tagh fault decreases, is a strain partitioning zone. The spatial and temporal distribution of its fault slip rate is of great significance to clarify the strain-partitioning pattern of the eastern Altyn Tagh fault. In this study, we determined the slip rates at four sites along the Aksay segment. The results demonstrated that the slip rate decreases dramatically, with an overwhelmingly high slip gradient of ∼9.8 mm/yr/100 km (a 9.8 mm/yr reduction of slip rate occurs over a distance of 100 km) within a distance of ∼50 km. The slip rate gradient along strike at the Aksay segment is four times that of the Subei segment to the eastward termination of the Altyn Tagh fault. Our results indicate that the slip rate gradient along the Altyn Tagh fault is not uniform and decreases eastward with variable slip rate gradients on different segments, resulting in the uplift of the mountains oblique to the Altyn Tagh fault.
ISSN:1553-040X
1553-040X
DOI:10.1130/GES02250.1