How faults slip is essential to understanding continental deformation and seismic hazards. In the western Qilian Shan region, the Danghe Nan Shan is one of the largest ranges bounded by active thrust faults. West and south of Subei, these thrusts can be followed for several kilometers along meter-high scarps and folded terraces. Quantifying the cumulative deformation of the folded and uplifted terraces and fans enables to constrain shortening rates of about 0.8 mm/yr over the last 130 ka. Evidence from surface geomorphology and sub-surface trenching across the faults indicates the occurrence of large magnitude potentially up to Mw 7 seismic events in the last 16 ka. Integrating age-controlled cumulative geological observations with field-documented co-seismic deformation increases the knowledge of slip rate and co-seismic displacement for seismic hazards.
The uplift measurements and shortening constraint
Citation: Shao, Y., van der Woerd, J., Liu-Zeng, J., Yuan, D., Yao, Y., Zou, X., & Wang, P. (2023). Shortening rates and recurrence of large earthquakes from folded and uplifted terraces in the Western Danghe Nan Shan foreland, north Tibet. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 128, e2021JB023736. https://doi. org/10.1029/2021JB023736
