The Kunlun Fault, an active fault on the border between the Bayan Har and Kunlun-Qaidam blocks, is one of the major left lateral strike-slip faults in the Tibetan Plateau. Previous research has not reached a consensus on agreeable slip rates along much of its length and the slip rate gradient along the eastern part, both of which play critical roles in a range of models for the eastward extrusion and thickened crust of the Tibetan Plateau. New slip rates have been determined at sites along the eastern part of the Kunlun Fault by dating deposits and measuring atop displaced fluvial terrace risers. Field investigations and interpretation of satellite images reveal geometrical features of the fault and the late Quaternary offset, new earthquake ruptures and surface-rupturing segmentation, from which long-term slip rates and earthquake recurrence intervals on the fault are estimated. The tectonic geomorphology method has determined that the long-term horizontal slip rates on the Tuosuohu, Maqin and Ma- qu segments from west to east are 11.2±1, 9.3±2, and 4.9±1.3 mm/a while their vertical slip rates are 1.2±0.2, 0.7±0.1, and 0.3 mm/a in the late Quaternary. Results indicate that the slip rates regularly decrease along the eastern -300 km of the fault from 〉10 to 〈5 mm/a. This is consistent with the decrease in the gradient such that at the slip rate break point is at the triple point intersection with the transverse fault, which in turn is transformed to the Awancang Fault. The vector decomposition for this tectonic transformation shows that the western and eastern branches of the Awancang Fault fit the slip-partitioning mode. The slip rate of the southwestern wall is 4.6 mm/a relative to the northeastern wall and the slip direction is 112.1°. The mid-eastern part of the Kunlun Fault can be divided into three independent segments by the A＇nyemaqen double restraining bend and the Xigongzhou intersection zone, which compose the surface rupture segmentation indicators for themselves as well as the ending poin
LI ChenXiaXU XiWeiWEN XueZeZHENG RongZhangCHEN GuiHuaYANG HuAN YanFenGAO Xiang
