Kunlun Fault

The Kunlun Fault is a major active left-lateral strike-slip fault to the north side of Tibet. Slippage along the 1,500-kilometre-long (930 mi) fault has occurred at a constant rate for the last 40,000 years. This has resulted in a cumulative offset of more than 400 metres (1,300 ft).^[1] The fault is seismically active, most recently causing the magnitude 7.8 2001 Kunlun earthquake.^[2] It forms the northeastern boundary of the elongate wedge of the Tibetan Plateau known as the Bayan Har block.^[3]

Tectonic map of the Tibetan Plateau showing location of the Kunlun fault

References

1. "The Kunlun Fault". Earth Observatory. NASA. 2000-10-10. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
2. Klinger, Y.; Xu X.; Taponnier P.; Vand der Woierd J.; Lasserre C.; King G. (2005). "High-Resolution Satellite Imagery Mapping of the Surface Rupture and Slip Distribution of the Mw ~7.8, 14 November 2001 Kokoxili Earthquake, Kunlun Fault, Northern Tibet, China". Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. 95 (5): 1970–1987. Bibcode:2005BuSSA..95.1970K. doi:10.1785/0120040233. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
3. Xu, X.W.; Wen, X.Z.; Chen, G.H.; Yu, G.H. (2008). "Discovery of the Longriba Fault Zone in Eastern Bayan Har Block, China and its tectonic implication". Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences. 51 (9): 1209–1223. doi:10.1007/s11430-008-0097-1.