Holocene slip rate of the frontal thrust in the western Qilian Shan, NE Tibetan Plateau

Liu, Xingwang; Yuan, Daoyang; Zheng, Wenjun; Shao, Yuan; Liu, Bingxu; Gao, Xiaodong

doi:10.1093/gji/ggz325

Cited by 14 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Based on the lithology distribution, the Qilian Orogen is divided into three belts: the North Qilian, the Central Qilian, and the South Qilian (Bovet et al., 2009; Gehrels et al., 2003; Yin & Harrison, 2000) (Figure 2). The North Qilian belt is being thrust up toward the Hexi Corridor by the North Qilian Shan Fault (NQF), which has a vertical throw rate of 0.8–1.3 mm/yr and a shortening rate of 1–2 mm/yr, derived from late Quaternary geomorphic deformation (Cao et al., 2019; Hetzel et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2017; Liu, Yuan, & Su, 2019; Liu, Yuan, Zheng, et al., 2019; Y. Wang et al., 2020; Xiong et al., 2017; Yang, Yang, Huang, et al., 2018; Yang, Yang, Zhang, et al., 2018). The northern boundary of the Central Qilian is represented by the thrust faults aligned along the northern margins of the Daxue Shan, Tuolai Nan Shan, and Tuolai Shan.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Quaternary Fault Slip Rate Within the Qilian Orogen, Insight Into the Deformation Kinematics for the NE Tibetan Plateau

Cao

et al. 2021

Tectonics

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Deformation kinematics are a fundamental part of providing a comprehensive understanding of the development of the topography of an orogen. Along a compressive orogen with a single mountain range, critical wedge theory (e.g., Dahlen, 1990;Davis et al., 1983) has been often applied to explain the development of the deformation and the building of the topography. However, for orogens with a wider range, other deformation hypotheses have been proposed. For the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, based on a study of a sedimentation proxy in adjacent basins, the hypothesis was proposed that the entire orogen was uplifted synchronously (Bovet et al., 2009;Zhuang et al., 2011), with the kinematic characteristics of the distributed faults and folds being active since their onset (Figure 1a). This hypothesis is supported by evidence of a gradually decreasing crustal shortening rate across the range, based on decades of GPS measurements (G. Zheng et al., 2017;W. Zheng et al., 2013). Another end-member argument is that the deformation front is gradually propagating outwards (Cheng et al., 2019;Yin et al., 2002;Yuan et al., 2013), similar to the wedge theory, with the kinematic characteristics of the most active deformation occurring at the leading-edge fault, and the fault within the orogen being inactive or less active (Figure 1b). This is evidenced by a fast slip rate (Champagnac et al., 2010) and a high strain rate of shortening along the boundary fault (Zuza et al., 2016).The Qilian Orogen, located in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, is composed of several NW-SE -trending parallel mountain ranges separated by thrust-fold systems; it has a width of ∼300 km from the Qaidam Basin to the Hexi Corridor. The uplift of this wide range is caused by the continuous extrusion of the Tibetan Plateau (

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Quaternary Fault Slip Rate Within the Qilian Orogen, Insight Into the Deformation Kinematics for the NE Tibetan Plateau

Cao

et al. 2021

Tectonics

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“…The Fodongmiao-Hongyazi fault (FHF) is a major rangebounding thrust fault between the Qilian Shan and Jiudong basin, belonging to the middle segment of the northern Qilian thrust fault zone (Figures 1, 2) (Yang et al, 2018a). The segment of the FHF that has been the most active during the Late Quaternary is approximately 110 km long, and it trends WNW (Institute of Geology, State Seismological Bureau, and Lanzhou Institute of Seismology, 1992;Chen, 2003;Zheng et al, 2009b;Xu et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2018aLiu et al, 2019). The vertical slip rate of the FHF has amounted to 1.2 ± 0.1 m/ka during the last 200 ka (Hetzel et al, 2019).…”

Section: Geological Setting and Overview Of The Ad 1609 Earthquakementioning

confidence: 99%

Re-Evaluating the Surface Rupture and Slip Distribution of the AD 1609 M7 1/4 Hongyapu Earthquake Along the Northern Margin of the Qilian Shan, NW China: Implications for Thrust Fault Rupture Segmentation

Huang

Yang

et al. 2021

Front. Earth Sci.

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The Hexi Corridor is located beyond the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and it is bounded by a series of active thrusts along the northern margin of the Qilian Shan and the southern piedmont of the Longshou Shan. Historically, five destructive earthquakes have occurred along the Hexi Corridor, which indicates that this region poses high potential seismic risks. The 1609 Hongyapu earthquake occurred along the Fodongmiao-Hongyazi fault in the northern Qilian Shan, China, and it killed more than 840 people and destroyed a large number of buildings. Presently, there are different opinions as to the distribution and length of the surface rupture of this event along the Fudongmiao–Hongyazi fault. Thus, we searched all of the fault scarps on the Holocene surfaces and suspected surface rupture locations related to the 1609 earthquake based on previous studies and developed detailed remote-sensing interpretations along the fault. An abundance of north-facing scarps on the younger fans and terrace faces, slightly higher than the active modern stream bed, were found along the Fodongmiao-Hongyazi fault in the area ranging from the Hongshuiba River (39.52°N, 98.41°E) in the west to the Shuiguan River (39.07°N, 99.37°E) in the east. Based on our research, we estimate a surface rupture length as ∼98 km based on the distribution of the fault scarps on Late Holocene surfaces and constraints provided by age dating. Most of the surface ruptures are preserved as fault scarps and indicate an average vertical surface offset of ∼1.0 m, a value found consistently in three segments of the fault. The surface rupture features indicate that segments of the fault ruptured together coseismically during the 1609 earthquake, i.e., a multisegment rupture. Using the surface fault traces, length of 98 or 90 km (without the Shuiguan River section), dip of 30° inferred from previous reflection profiles, a rigidity of 3.3 × 1010 N/m2, and dip slip average as 1.9 m converted from our observations of the offsets, we computed the magnitude of this event as ca. Mw 7.2–Mw 7.4.

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“…The first was the SfM (Structure from Motion) photogrammetry. The rapidly popular unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have provided platforms for SfM photogrammetry, which has been commonly used to measure the height of surface scarps (Priyanka et al, 2017;Xiong et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2019;Zhong et al, 2020). The high-precision orthoimages obtained from SfM photogrammetry can offer the most visualized fault morphology, and the produced DEM can be used to measure the accurate length and height (Harwin and Lucieer, 2012).…”

Section: Measurement Of the Scarp Heightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The vertical slip rate of a fault is a significant metric to quantify the intensity of tectonic activity (Tapponnier et al, 1990;Hetzel et al, 2002;Ai et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2017), reconstruct the behavior of the fault over time (Zheng W. J. et al, 2013;Xiong et al, 2017;Hetzel et al, 2019), evaluate the seismic risk (Ren et al, 2019;Lei et al, 2020), and understand the regional active deformation (Yang et al, 2018;Liu et al, 2019;Ren et al, 2019;Zhong et al, 2020). The estimation of vertical slip rates mostly depends on two factors: the magnitude of the offset and the age of offset landmarks (Burbank and Anderson, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If the fluvial deposits are eroded or covered by loess after deposition, the nuclide concentration of surface samples would be relatively low (Hetzel, 2013). For this reason, the sampling site of the 10 Be exposure dating should be selected in the hanging wall dominated by erosion (Hetzel, 2013), and in the profile without the cover of loess (Champagnac et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2017Liu et al, , 2019Hetzel et al, 2019), otherwise, the loess shielding effect must be corrected (Hetzel et al, 2004(Hetzel et al, , 2006Palumbo et al, 2009;Yang et al, 2018;Cao et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Erosion and Deposition on Constraining Vertical Slip Rates of Thrust Faults: A Case Study of the Minle–Damaying Fault in the North Qilian Shan, NE Tibetan Plateau

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2021

Front. Earth Sci.

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The height of a thrust-fault scarp on a fluvial terrace would be modified due to erosion and deposition, and these surface processes can also influence the dating of terraces. Under such circumstances, the vertical slip rate of a fault can be misestimated due to the inaccurate displacement and/or abandonment age of the terrace. In this contribution, considering the effect of erosion and deposition on fault scarps, we re-constrained the vertical slip rate of the west end of the Minle–Damaying Fault (MDF), one of the thrusts in the north margin of the Qilian Shan that marks the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. In addition, we tried to explore a more reliable method for obtaining the vertical fault displacement and the abandonment age of terraces with AMS 14C dating. The heights of the surface scarps and the displacements of the fluvial gravel layers exposed on the Yudai River terraces were precisely measured with the Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry and the real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS. The Monte Carlo simulation method was used to estimate the uncertainties of fault displacements and vertical slip rates. Based on comparative analysis, the dating sample from the fluvial sand layer underlying the thickest loess in the footwall was suggested to best represent the abandonment age of the terrace, and the fluvial gravel layer could better preserve the original vertical fault displacement compared with the surface layer. Using the most reliable ages and vertical offsets, the vertical slip rate of the MDF was estimated to be 0.25–0.28 mm/a since 42.3 ± 0.5 ka (T10) and 0.14–0.24 mm/a since 16.1 ± 0.2 ka (T7). The difference between the wrong vertical slip rate and the right one can even reach an order of magnitude. We also suggest that if the built measuring profile is long enough, the uncertainties in the height of a surface scarp would be better constrained and the result can also be taken as the vertical fault displacement. Furthermore, the consistency of chronology with stratigraphic sequence or with terrace sequence are also key to constraining the abandonment ages of terraces. The fault activity at the study site is weaker than that in the middle and east segments of the MDF, which is likely due to its end position.

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Holocene slip rate of the frontal thrust in the western Qilian Shan, NE Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 14 publications

References 48 publications

Late Quaternary Fault Slip Rate Within the Qilian Orogen, Insight Into the Deformation Kinematics for the NE Tibetan Plateau

Late Quaternary Fault Slip Rate Within the Qilian Orogen, Insight Into the Deformation Kinematics for the NE Tibetan Plateau

Re-Evaluating the Surface Rupture and Slip Distribution of the AD 1609 M7 1/4 Hongyapu Earthquake Along the Northern Margin of the Qilian Shan, NW China: Implications for Thrust Fault Rupture Segmentation

Effects of Erosion and Deposition on Constraining Vertical Slip Rates of Thrust Faults: A Case Study of the Minle–Damaying Fault in the North Qilian Shan, NE Tibetan Plateau

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