At 02:04 a.m. on May 22, 2021, a M_S7.4 earthquake occurred in the Maduo County, Qinghai Province, China. Its epicenter is located within the Bayan Har block in the north-central Tibetan plateau, approximately 70km south of the eastern Kunlun fault system that defines the northern boundary of the block. In order to constrain the seismogenic fault and characterize the co-seismic surface ruptures of this earthquake, field investigations were conducted immediately after the earthquake, combined with analyses of the focal parameters, aftershock distribution, and InSAR inversion of this earthquake.
This preliminary study finds that the seismogenic fault of the Maduo M_S7.4 earthquake is the Jiangcuo segment of the Kunlunshankou-Jiangcuo Fault, which is an active NW-striking and left-lateral strike-slip fault. The total length of the co-seismic surface ruptures is approximately 160km. Multiple rupture patterns exist, mainly including linear shear fractures, obliquely distributed tensional and tensional-shear fractures, pressure ridges, and pull-apart basins. The earthquake also induced a large number of liquefaction structures and landslides in valleys and marshlands.
Based on strike variation and along-strike discontinuity due to the development of step-overs, the coseismic surface rupture zone can be subdivided into four segments, namely the Elinghu South, Huanghexiang, Dongcaoarlong, and Changmahexiang segments. The surface ruptures are quite continuous and prominent along the Elinghu south segment, western portion of the Huanghexiang segment, central portion of the Dongcaoarlong segment, and the Huanghexiang segment. Comparatively, coseismic surface ruptures of other portions are discontinuous. The coseismic strike-slip displacement is roughly determined to be 1~2m based on the displaced gullies, trails, and the width of cracks at releasing step-overs.

In the process of intense compression and shortening of the orogenic belt, a series of thrust faults and folds related to reverse faults developed in the piedmont. Determining the kinematic characteristics of these reverse faults and folds is of great significance for understanding the deformation mode of the orogenic belt. The Qilian Shan is located on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau and is the front edge of the plateau expansion. The area has undergone strong tectonic activity since the Late Quaternary, with developed active structures and frequent earthquakes. There are a series of piedmont thrust faults and thrust related folds in the northern and southern margins of Qilian Shan. Compared with a large number of research results of active folds in Tian Shan area, the study of active folds in Qilian Shan is relatively weak. In the northern margin of the Qilian Shan, in addition to the study of individual active folds, most previous studies focused on the thrust faults in the northern margin of the Qilian Shan and the Hexi Corridor, and obtained the active characteristics of these faults. In the southern margin of Qilian Shan, that is, the northern margin of the Qaidam Basin, some studies have been carried out on paleoearthquakes and slip rate of the fault in the southern margin of Zongwulong Shan. However, the study on the late Quaternary folds in this area is relatively weak and there are only some sporadic works.
Shidiquan anticline is located in the intermountain basin surrounded by Zongwulong Shan and Hongshan in the northern margin of Qaidam Basin. It forms the first row fold structure in front of Zongwulong Shan with Huaitoutala and Delingha anticline. Constraining the tectonic geomorphic features of the Shidiquan anticline is of great significance for studying the crustal shortening in the northern margin of the Qaidam Basin and the expansion of the Qilian Shan to the Qaidam Basin. In this paper, the tectonic and geomorphic characteristics of Shidiquan anticline are obtained by means of geological mapping, high-precision differential GPS topographic profile survey, geological profile survey and cosmogenic nuclide dating. Field investigation shows that Shidiquan anticline is an asymmetric fold with steep south limb and gentle north limb, and is controlled by a blind reverse fault dipping northward. The age of the alluvial fan3 obtained from cosmogenic nuclide dating is(158.32±15.54)ka. This age coincides with the Gonghe Movement, indicating that the formation of Shidiquan anticline responds to the Gonghe Movement in the northeast margin of Tibetan plateau. The uplift rate of Shidiquan anticline since 158ka is(0.06±0.01)mm/a, and the shortening rate is(0.05±0.01)mm/a. The folding effect of Shidiquan anticline indicates that the folding of the intermountain basin in the northern margin of the Qaidam Basin, similar to the thrust shortening of the piedmont fault, plays an important role in regulating the shortening of the foreland crust.

The Shanxi Graben System is one of the intracontinental graben systems developed around the Ordos Block in North China since the Cenozoic, and it provides a unique natural laboratory for studying the long-term tectonic history of active intracontinental normal faults in an extensional environment. Comparing with the dense strong earthquakes in its central part, no strong earthquakes with magnitudes over 7 have been recorded historically in the Jin-Ji-Meng Basin-and-Range Province of the northern Shanxi Graben System. However, this area is located at the conjunction area of several active-tectonic blocks(e.g. the Ordos, Yan Shan and North China Plain blocks), thus it has the tectonic conditions for strong earthquakes. Studying the active tectonics in the northern Shanxi Graben System will thus be of great significance to the seismic hazard assessment. Based on high-resolution remote sensing image interpretations and field investigations, combined with the UAV photogrammetry and OSL dating, we studied the late Quaternary activity and slip rate of the relatively poorly-researched Yanggao-Tianzhen Fault(YTF)in the Jin-Ji-Meng Basin-and-Range Province and got the followings: 1)The YTF extends for more than 75km from Dashagou, Fengzhen, Inner Mongolia in the west to Yiqingpo, Tianzhen, Shanxi Province in the east. In most cases, the YTF lies in the contact zone between the bedrock mountain and the sediments in the basin, but the fault grows into the basin where the fault geometry is irregular. At the vicinity of the Erdun Village, Shijiudun Village, and Yulinkou Village, the faults are not only distributed at the basin-mountain boundary, we have also found evidence of late Quaternary fault activity in the alluvial fans that is far away from the basin-mountain boundary. The overall strike of the fault is N78°E, but the strike gradually changes from ENE to NE, then to NWW from the west to the east, with dips ranging from 30° to 80°. 2)Based on field surveys of tectonic landforms and analysis of fault kinematics in outcrops, we have found that the sense of motion of the YTF changes along its strikes: the NEE and NE-striking segments are mainly normal dip-slip faults, while the left-laterally displaced gullies on the NWW segment and the occurrence characteristics of striations in the fault outcrop indicate that the NWW-striking segment is normal fault with minor sinistral strike-slip component. The sense of motion of the YTF determined by geologic and geomorphic evidences is consistent with the relationship between the regional NNW-SSE extension regime and the fault geometry. 3)By measuring and dating the displaced geologic markers and geomorphic surfaces, such as terraces and alluvial fans at three sites along the western segment of the YTF, we estimated that the fault slip rates are 0.12~0.20mm/a over the late Pleistocene. In order to compare the slip rate determined by geological method with extension rate constrained by geodetic measurement, the vertical slip rates were converted into horizontal slip rate using the dip angles of the fault planes measured in the field. At Zhuanlou Village, the T₂ terrace was vertically displaced for(2.5±0.4)m, the abandonment age of the T₂ was constrained to be(12.5±1.6)ka, so we determined a vertical slip rate of(0.2±0.04)mm/a using the deformed T₂ terrace and its OSL age. For a 50°dipping fault, it corresponds to extension rate of(0.17±0.03)mm/a. At Pingshan Village, the vertical displacement of the late Pleistocene alluvial fan is measured to be(5.38±0.83)m, the abandonment age of the alluvial fan is(29.7±2.5)ka, thus we estimated the vertical slip rate of the YTF to(0.18±0.02)mm/a. For a 65° dipping fault, it corresponds to an extension rate of(0.09±0.01)mm/a. Ultimately, the corresponding extensional rates were determined to be between 0.09mm/a and 0.17mm/a. Geological and geodetic researches have shown that the northern Shanxi Graben System are extending in NNW-SSE direction with slip rates of 1~2mm/a. Our data suggests that the YTF accounts for about 10% of the crustal extension rate in the northern Shanxi Graben System.

With the continuous collision of the India and Eurasia plate in Cenozoic, the Qilian Shan began to uplift strongly from 12Ma to 10Ma. Nowadays, Qilian Shan is still uplifting and expanding. In the northern part of Qilian Shan, tectonic activity extends to Hexi Corridor Basin, and has affected Alashan area. In the southern part of Qilian Shan, tectonic activity extends to Qaidam Basin, forming a series of thrust faults in the northern margin of Qaidam Basin and a series of fold deformations in the basin. The southern Zongwulong Shan Fault is located in the northeastern margin of Qaidam Basin, it is the boundary thrust fault between the southern margin of Qilian Shan and Qaidam Basin. GPS studies show that the total crustal shortening rate across the Qilian Shan is 5~8mm/a, which absorbs 20% of the convergence rate of the Indian-Eurasian plate. Concerning how the strain is distributed on individual fault in the Qilian Shan, previous studies mainly focused on the northern margin of the Qilian Shan and the Hexi Corridor Basin, while the study on the southern margin of the Qilian Shan was relatively weak. Therefore, the study of late Quaternary activity of southern Zongwulong Shan Fault in southern margin of Qilian Shan is of great significance to understand the strain distribution pattern in Qilian Shan and the propagation of the fault to the interior of Qaidam Basin. At the same time, because of the strong tectonic activity, the northern margin of Qaidam Basin is also a seismic-prone area. Determining the fault slip rate is also helpful to better understand the movement behaviors of faults and seismic risk assessment.Through remote sensing image interpretation and field geological survey, combined with GPS topographic profiling, cosmogenic nuclides and optically stimulated luminescence dating, we carried out a detailed study at Baijingtu site and Xujixiang site on the southern Zongwulong Shan Fault. The results show that the southern Zongwulong Shan Fault is a Holocene reverse fault, which faulted a series of piedmont alluvial fans and formed a series of fault scarps.The 43ka, 20ka and 11ka ages of the alluvial fan surfaces in this area can be well compared with the ages of terraces and alluvial fan surfaces in the northeastern margin of Tibetan Plateau, and its formation is mainly controlled by climatic factors. Based on the vertical dislocations of the alluvial fans in different periods in Baijingtu and Xujixiang areas, the average vertical slip rate of the southern Zongwulong Shan Fault since late Quaternary is(0.41±0.05)mm/a, and the average horizontal shortening rate is 0.47~0.80mm/a, accounting for about 10% of the crustal shortening in Qilian Shan. These results are helpful to further understand the strain distribution model in Qilian Shan and the tectonic deformation mechanism in the northern margin of Qaidam Basin. The deformation mechanism of the northern Qaidam Basin fault zone, which is composed of the southern Zongwulong Shan Fault, is rather complicated, and it is not a simple piggy-back thrusting style. These faults jointly control the tectonic activity characteristics of the northern Qaidam Basin.

The Longmenshan fault zone is located in eastern margin of Tibetan plateau and bounded on the east by Sichuan Basin, and tectonically the location is very important. It has a deep impact on the topography, geomorphology, geological structure and seismicity of southwestern China. It is primarily composed of multiple parallel thrust faults, namely, from northwest to southeast, the back-range, the central, the front-range and the piedmont hidden faults, respectively. The M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake of 12^th May 2008 ruptured the central and the front-range faults. But the earthquake didn't rupture the back-range fault. This shows that these two faults are both active in Holocene. But until now, we don't know exactly the activity of the back-range fault. The back-range fault consists of the Pingwu-Qingchuan Fault, the Wenchuan-Maoxian Fault and the Gengda-Longdong Fault. Through satellite image(Google Earth)interpretation, combining with field investigation, we preliminarily found out that five steps of alluvial platforms or terraces have been developed in Minjiang region along the Wenchuan-Maoxian Fault. T₁ and T₂ terraces are more continuous than T₃, T₄ and T₅ terraces. Combining with the previous work, we discuss the formation ages of the terraces and conclude, analyze and summarize the existing researches about the terraces of Minjiang River. We constrain the ages of T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄ and T₅ surfaces to 3~10ka BP,~20ka BP, 40~50ka BP, 60ka BP and 80ka BP, respectively. Combining with geomorphologic structural interpretation, measurements of the cross sections of the terraces by differential GPS and detailed site visits including terraces, gullies and other geologic landforms along the fault, we have reason to consider that the Wenchuan-Maoxian Fault was active between the formation age of T₃ and T₂ terrace, but inactive since T₂ terrace formed. Its latest active period should be the middle and late time of late Pleistocene, and there is no activity since the Holocene. Combining with the knowledge that the central and the front-range faults are both Quaternary active faults, the activity of Longmenshan fault zone should have shifted to the central and the front-range faults which are closer to the basin, this indicates that the Longmenshan thrust belt fits the "Piggyback Type" to some extent.