“…Recent studies have demonstrated that the Altyn Tagh and Kunlun faults are strike-slip faults that accommodate both the northward shortening and eastward extrusion of the Tibetan Plateau (e.g., Meyer et al, 1996;Lin et al, 2002Lin et al, , 2003Lin et al, , 2006Kirby et al, 2007;Lin and Guo, 2008). This hypothesis is supported by GPS data that indicate clockwise rotation of the southeastern Tibetan Plateau along the N-S-trending fault zone on the eastern margin of the plateau (e.g., King et al, 1997;Holt et al, 2000;Shen et al, 2000Shen et al, , 2005Wang et al, 2001;Zhang et al, 2004).…”