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Dryad

Late Quaternary slip rate of the Aksay segment and its fast decreasing gradient along the Altyn Tagh fault

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Mar 02, 2020 version files 60.24 MB

Abstract

Constraining the fault slip rate could reveal the strain accumulation and partitioning pattern. The Aksay segment, the eastern segment of the ATF (Altyn Tagh Fault), as the starting area where the slip rate of ATF decreases, is a strain partitioning zone. The spatial and temporal distribution of fault slip rate along the Aksay segment is of great significance to clarify the role of it in the strain-partitioning of the eastern ATF. We determined the slip rate of four sites along the Aksay segment respectively. The results demonstrated that the slip rate decreased dramatically with an overwhelmingly high slip gradient of ~9.8 mm/yr/100 km within a distance of ~50 km. The slip rate gradient at the Aksay segment is ~4 times of that of the Subei segment to the eastward termination of the ATF. We proposed that the decreased slip rate was absorbed principally by the uplifting of the Danghe Nan Shan. Our results indicated that the slip rate gradient along the ATF was not uniform, and decreased eastward with variable slip rate gradients at different segments, resulting in the uplifting of the mountains oblique with the ATF.