Slip-Rate on the Middle Altyn Tagh Fault since the Holocene Period

By analyzing high-resolution SPOT images and in combination with fieldwork and chronometry, three typical fault-offset sites on the south-middle Altyn Tagh strike-slip fault were studied to obtain the sinistral horizontal slip rate of the fault. At Annanba, the left-lateral strike-slip rate on a branch of the south Altyn Tagh fault is 7.5±1.7 mm/a since 9.36±0.73ka BP. At Seven Spring, the fault has four branches and the left-lateral strike-slip rate on one of them is 2.3±0.5mm/a since 13.86±1.07ka BP, and it is deduced that the total slip-rate of all the four branches is 6.9±1.5～ 9.2±2.0 mm/a since Holocene. At Yuemakeqi, the left-lateral strike-slip rate of the fault is 10.6±3.0mm/a since 4.73±0.38 ka BP. A slip-rate of 7～11mm/a on the middle segment of the Altyn Tagh fault (between 88°30’E and 93°05’E) since Holocene can be deduced from the three sites mentioned above and the result is similar to the latest GPS observation.