As the NW-trending dextral strike-slip fault on the northern margin of the Tarim Basin, the Kalayu’ergun Fault defines the western boundary between the western Kuqa Depression and Wensu Bulge. It holds immense importance to understand the deformation occurring within the Kuqa Depression. However, there is still ongoing debate regarding the length, activity time and formation mechanism of the Kalayu’ergun Fault. In this study, a comprehensive investigation was conducted, incorporating sub-surface geophysical data, high-resolution remote sensing satellite images, and the findings of previous researchers. The results demonstrate that the Kalayu’ergun Fault cuts off the Awate anticline in the north, and to the south, it extends near the southern flank of the North Kalayu’ergun anticline but does not reach the Middle Kalayu’ergun anticline. The total extension of the fault is estimated to be approximately 40km. And the minimum of the fault strike-slip distance is estimated by the sum of the tectonic shortening of the North Kalayu’ergun anticline and the shortening absorbed by the strata on the northern flank of the Awate anticline through drag, which amounts to about 4.1-4.3km. Additionally, the Kalayu’ergun Fault has been active since its formation in the early Pliocene, but its activity intensity has been weakened obviously. The activity of the Kalayu’ergun Fault corresponds to the deformation time of the North Kalayu’ergun anticline, which is consistent with the deformation time determined using the same structural sedimentary constraints. This indicates that the North Kalayu’ergun anticline was formed under the combined action of near north-south compressional and horizontal shear stresses. The development of this transverse fault is synchronous with the overthrust structures on both sides and is developed in synchrony with the strong uplift of the southern Tian Shan orogenic belt since the late Cenozoic. The formation of the Kalayu’ergun Fault can be affected not only by the differences in the basement nature on both sides but also closely related to the difference in the thickness of the gypsum salt layer. The former resulted in variations in horizontal shortening on both sides of the fault, leading to the tearing of the Cenozoic sedimentary cover. The latter, which under the action of the extrusion stress, influenced the generation and evolution of salt-overlying beds, and then influenced the formation of the fault. In addition, the existence of prior salt structures, also known as salt diapirs, may have also played an important role in the formation of the fault. As the boundary fault in the western part of the Kuqa Depression, the Kalayu’ergun Fault is responsible for accommodating crustal shortening on both sides and even in the whole eastern and western parts of the Kuqa Depression. As a result, the shortening of the Kuqa Depression gradually decreased from east to west. Furthermore, the Kalayu’ergun Fault also had significant impacts on geomorphology, as it controls and modifies the landscape in the southern Tian Shan foreland basin. In the meanwhile, the Kalayu’ergun Fault creates favorable conditions for the transportation and accumulation of oil and gas resources.

Due to the collision between the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate, the Tibetan plateau has experienced violent uplift and strong intraplate deformation inside the plateau, which has a great impact on the tectonic evolution of the surrounding areas. The northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau is the forefront of the northeastward expansion of the Tibetan plateau, which is the ideal place to study the deformation of the plateau as well as the far-field deformation associated with continental collision between the Eurasia and India plates. In recent years, scholars have gained a certain understanding of the characteristics of late Quaternary tectonic activity in the northeast margin of Tibetan plateau. Within the northeastern margin of Tibetan plateau, there are two major fault systems: One is the near EW-trending left-lateral strike-slip fault system, including the Kunlun, Haiyuan and western Qinling faults, the other one is the NNW-trending right-lateral strike-slip fault system, including the Elashan and Riyueshan faults. They are sub-parallel to each other. Since the Riyueshan Fault is one of the major right-lateral strike-slip faults in the northeastern margin of Tibetan plateau, its activity is of great significance for understanding the plateau expansion. Previous studies mainly focused on its northern part which is believed to be active during Holocene. However, its southern part is believed to be active during late Pleistocene, but not active since Holocene. Therefore, there are little studies focusing on the late Quaternary activities of the southern part of the Riyueshan Fault. Hence, our understanding about the characteristics of the late Quaternary activity is insufficient. During our preliminary field survey along the southern Riyueshan Fault, we found distinct deformation of Holocene landforms, such as the young alluvial fan, terrace risers and channels, which indicate its late Quaternary activity. In this study, we firstly analyze the fault geometry of the southern Riyueshan Fault based on high-resolution Superview-1 remote sensing images and carry out field verification. Based on fault geometry characteristics, fault strike orientation etc., we divided the southern Riyueshan Fault into two segments from north to south. One is the Guide segment(generally trending in NW 20°)and the other is the Duohelmao segment(generally striking in NS). During our field investigation, we found two typical sites for slip rate studies, the Rixiaolongwa site on the Guide segment and the Niemari site on the Duohemao segment, respectively. We collected high-resolution images using UAV, and then generated high-resolution DEM of these two sites. By measuring the offsets and corresponding dating results of multi-level terrace risers, we obtained the displacements of the three-level and two-level terraces at Rixiaolongwa and Niemari site, respectively. Then we collected the OSL and ¹⁴C samples on different terrace risers to constrain the age of each terrace. In the Rixiaolongwa area, the corresponding offsets of T1, T2 and T3 terraces are(26.3±3.1)m, (32.7±7.1)m and(38.6±8)m, and the age sequence is(7840±30)a BP, (9 350~10 700)a BP and(11.9±1.3)ka BP, respectively. In the Nimari area, the corresponding offsets of T1 and T2 terraces are(6.3±0.7)m and(9.7±1.7)m, and the ages are(2 860±30)a BP and(3 460±30)a BP, respectively. By applying Monte Carlo method, we obtained the corresponding slip rates of(3.37+0.55/-0.68)mm/a and(2.69+0.41/-0.38)mm/a for the Guide and Duohemao segment, which is comparable to the previously suggested slip rate of northern Riyueshan Fault. Finally, we discussed the role of the Riyueshan Fault in the tectonic deformation of northeastern Tibetan plateau.

As the key area of interaction between land and sea, continental shelf is important for the tectonic evolution of continent, sea-land change, sea level eustacy and climate change. Due to the limits of different methods, the understanding of the chronology and potential geological information of the sediments on the continental shelf is not enough. The South China Sea, as the largest marginal sea of the West Pacific, is not only one of the most active areas of marine sedimentation in the world, but also the typical region of the interaction between land and sea. As the main sedimentary area of the East Asia, the South China Sea has received increasing academic research attention. At present, the researches mostly focus on the deep-sea sediments because they are continuous and can record stable signals, even though the relative slow deposition and low resolution. Comparatively, the shallow continental shelf deposits with faster sedimentary rate and higher resolution can provide important geological materials for studying the high-resolution chronology and paleoenvironment. However, the sedimentary signals recorded by the continental shelf sediments are unstable and even missing due to the turbulence of the sedimentary environment of the continental shelf. There are relatively few studies on the continental shelf sediments of the South China Sea, especially the high-resolution chronology of cores, thus limiting the understanding of tectonic and climate evolution of the South China Sea. In order to better constrain the geological chronology of the Late Pleistocene continental shelf sediments in northern South China Sea, study the paleoenvironmental signals in the continental shelf sediments and discuss the driving mechanism of the climate changes in East Asia and provide the chronological framework for the study of marine active tectonics in the South China Sea, the comparison between magnetic susceptibility and Marine Oxygen Isotope based on microscopic paleonotological fossils and carbon isotopic age(¹⁴C)was studied on the Core DG in this paper. Additionally, the results of sediments color and pollens were used to study the paleoclimatic implications. The results of magnetic susceptibility suggest that the chronology of the sediments of Core DG can be constrained from MIS 1 to MIS 9, with the age of the bottom being about 300ka. The relative high and low values of magnetic susceptibility correspond to interglacial and glacial periods, respectively. This is consistent with the paleoclimatic signals evidenced by the changes of pollen and color parameters in the DG core sediments. Therefore, we suggest that the magnetic susceptibility of continental shelf sediments can be affected by the changes of climate. During glacial periods, the relative cold weather, shallow water and increased transportation distance of the sediments resulted in the enhanced oxidation and the formation of minerals with weak magnetic susceptibility(such as hematite), thus the magnetic susceptibility decreased and the redness increased in the sediments. However, during interglacial periods, the relative warm and wet climate, together with the decreased transportation distance of the sediments, led to the formation of minerals with strong magnetic susceptibility(such as magnetite), thus the magnetic susceptibility enhanced significantly and the redness decreased in the sediments. Therefore, the variations of the magnetic susceptibility in the continental shelf sediments in the northern part of the South China Sea can reflect the glacial-interglacial cycles in the East Asia since the late Pleistocene. In conclusion, as a relative dating method used in the unconsolidated sediments in the late Quaternary, the comparison between magnetic susceptibility and Marine Oxygen Isotope is applicative and reliable in constraining the chronology of the Late Pleistocene continental shelf sediments in northern South China Sea, thus providing a new reference for studying and correlating the continental shelf sediments, which can be used reasonably in the Quaternary chronology.

The deformation pattern in the northeastern margin of Tibetan plateau is characterized by NE compression, clockwise rotation and eastward extrusion, forming the NNE trending dextral strike-slip faults which further divide the region into several sub-blocks. The deformation of Qaidam secondary block is dominant by northwestward extrusion and rotation, which is controlled by the Elashan and East Kunlun faults. However, the deformation style of Dulan area, the junction of these two faults, remains unclear. We discovered a new active fault zone with a length of 60~70km west to Elashan Fault during our recent field geological survey around Dulan area, named Xiariha fault zone(XFZ), which is a dextral strike-slip fault zone trending NW, consisting of the Xiariha and Yingdeerkang faults. According to the remote sensing interpretation and field investigation, it is found that the Xiariha fault zone showed distinct linear characteristics, reverse scarp, sag pond and ridge dislocation on the satellite images and displaced multi-levels of alluvial fans and river terraces. According to previous studies, the exposed age of T1 terraces is Holocene in the Elashan area, which is located at east of Dulan. During the field investigation, we used the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)to get the fine geomorphology features along the XFZ. Also, to define the active era, we tried to find the fault section of the XFZ that could provide the information of the contact between the fault and late Quaternary strata. Based on the high-resolution DEM obtained by UAV, the offset of T1 is about 2.5m, indicating its activity in Holocene compared with the Elashan area. Along the XFZ, the fault displaced late Quaternary strata revealed on the section. The geomorphic features and fault section show that the XFZ is a late Pleistocene to Holocene active fault. The Dulan area is located at the convergence of East Kunlun Fault and Elashan Fault, the southeastern end of Qaidam secondary block, which is affected by the regional NE and SW principal compressive stress and shear stress. Under this circumstance, the Qaidam block is experiencing extrusion and rotation and there are a series of NW-trending dextral strike-slip faults parallel to the Elashan Fault and EW-trending sinistral strike-slip faults parallel to the East Kunlun Fault, such as Reshui-Taosituo River Fault, developed in the Dulan area. Therefore, we suggest that the Xiariha Fault and the nearly EW trending, Holocene sinistral Reshui-Taosituo River Fault adjust the extrusion rotation deformation jointly at the southeast end of the Qaidam block under the control of the Elashan Fault and the East Kunlun Fault, respectively. Meanwhile, the new discovery of Xiariha Fault and its activity in Holocene is not only of great significance to understand the regional tectonic deformation model, but also leads to a great change in the understanding of regional seismic risk because of its capabliliby of generating strong earthquakes. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out further research work in this area, improve the understanding of regional strain distribution mode, and provide reference for regional seismic safety issues.

The 40km-long, NEE trending Reshui-Taostuo River Fault was found in the southern Dulan-Chaka highland by recent field investigation, which is a strike-slip fault with some normal component. DEM data was generated by small unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)on key geomorphic units with resolution<0.05m. Based on the interpretation and field investigation, we get two conclusions: 1)It is the first time to define the Reshui-Taostuo River Fault, and the fault is 40km long with a 6km-long surface rupture; 2)There are left-handed dislocations in the gullies and terraces cut by the fault. On the high-resolution DEM image obtained by UAV, the offsets are(9.3±0.5)m, (17.9±1.5)m, and(36.8±2)m, measured by topographic profile recovery of gullies. The recovery measurements of two terraces present that the horizontal offset of T₁/T₀ is(18.2±1.5)m and the T₂/T₁ is (35.8±2)m, which is consistent with the offsets from gullies. According to the historical earthquake records, a M53/4 earthquake on April 10, 1938 and a M_S5.0 earthquake on March 21, 1952 occurred at the eastern end of the surface rupture, which may be related to the activity of the fault. By checking the county records of Dulan and other relevant data, we find that there are no literature records about the two earthquakes, which is possibly due to the far distance to the epicenter at that time, the scarcity of population in Dulan, or that the earthquake occurred too long ago that led to losing its records. The southernmost ends of the Eastern Kunlun Fault and the Elashan Fault converge to form a wedge-shaped extruded fault block toward the northwest. The Dulan Basin, located at the end of the wedge-shaped fault block, is affected by regional NE and SW principal compressive stress and the shear stress of the two boundary faults. The Dulan Basin experienced a complex deformation process of compression accompanying with extension. In the process of extrusion, the specific form of extension is the strike-slip faults at each side of the wedge, and there is indeed a north-east and south-west compression between the two controlling wedge-shaped fault block boundary faults, the Eastern Kunlun and Elashan Faults. The inferred mechanism of triangular wedge extrusion deformation in this area is quite different from the pure rigid extrusion model. Therefore, Dulan Basin is a wedge-shaped block sandwiched between the two large-scale strike-slip faults. Due to the compression of the northeast and southwest directions of the region, the peripheral faults of the Dulan Basin form a series of southeast converging plume thrust faults on the northeast edge of the basin near the Elashan Fault, which are parallel to the Elashan Fault in morphology and may converge with the Elashan Fault in subsurface. The southern marginal fault of the Dulan Basin(Reshui-Taostuo River Fault)near the Eastern Kunlun fault zone is jointly affected by the left-lateral strike-slip Eastern Kunlun Fault and the right-lateral strike-slip Elashan Fault, presenting a left-lateral strike-slip characteristic. Meanwhile, the wedge-shaped fault block extrudes to the northwest, causing local extension at the southeast end, and the fault shows the extensional deformation. These faults absorb or transform the shear stress in the northeastern margin of the Tibet Plateau. Therefore, our discovery of the Dulan Reshui-Taostuo River Fault provides important constraints for better understanding of the internal deformation mode and mechanism of the fault block in the northeastern Tibetan plateau.
The strike of Reshui-Taostuo River Fault is different from the southern marginal fault of the Qaidam Basin. The Qaidam south marginal burial fault is the boundary fault between the Qaidam Basin and the East Kunlun structural belt, with a total length of ~500km. The geophysical data show that Qaidam south marginal burial fault forms at the boundary between the positive gravity anomaly of the southern East Kunlun structural belt and the negative gravity anomaly gradient zone of the northern Qaidam Basin, showing as a thrust fault towards the basin. The western segment of the fault was active at late Pleistocene, and the eastern segment near Dulan County was active at early-middle Pleistocene. The Reshui-Taostuo River Fault is characterized by sinistral strike-slip with a normal component. The field evidence indicates that the latest active period of this fault was Holocene, with a total length of only 40km. Neither remote sensing image interpretation nor field investigation indicate the fault extends further westward and intersects with the Qaidam south marginal burial fault. Moreover, it shows that its strike is relatively consistent with the East Kunlun fault zone in spatial distribution and has a certain angle with the burial fault in the southern margin of Qaidam Basin. Therefore, there is no structural connection between the Reshui-Taostuo River Fault and the Qaidam south marginal burial fault.

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.

With the development of photogrammetry technology and the popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)technology in recent years, using UAV photogrammetry technology to rapidly acquire high precision and high resolution topographic and geomorphic data on the fault zone has gradually become an important technical means. This paper first summarizes the basic principle and workflow of a new digital photogrammetry technology, SfM (Structure from Motion), which is simple, efficient and low cost. Using this technology, we conducted aerial image acquisition and data processing for a typical fault landform on the northern of Caka Basin in Qinghai. The digital elevation model (DEM)with 6.1cm/pix resolution is generated and the density of point cloud is as high as 273 points/m². The coverage area is 0.463km². Further, the terrain and slope data parallel to the fault direction are extracted by topographic analysis method, and combined with the contour map and the slope diagram generated by the DEM, a fine interpretation and quantitative study of complex multilevel geomorphic surfaces is carried out. Finally, based on the results of sophisticated interpretation of geomorphology, we got the vertical displacements of the T₁ terrace to the T₃ terrace as (1.01±0.06)m, (1.37±0.13)m and (3.10±0.11)m, and the minimum vertical displacements of the T₄ terrace and the T₅ terrace as (3.77±0.14)m and (5.46±0.26)m, respectively, through the topographic profile data extracted by DEM. Such vertical displacement parameters are difficult to obtain directly by traditional remote sensing images, which shows the great application prospect of UAV photogrammetry technology in the quantitative study of active tectonics.

Qilian Shan and Hexi Corridor, located in the north of Tibetan plateau, are the margin of Tibetan plateau's tectonic deformation and pushing. Its internal deformations and activities can greatly conserve the extension process and characteristics of the Plateau. The research of Qilian Shan and Hexi Corridor consequentially plays a significant role in understanding tectonic deformation mechanism of Tibetan plateau. The northern Yumushan Fault, located in the middle of the northern Qilian Shan thrust belt, is a significant component of Qilian Shan thrust belt which divides Yumushan and intramontane basins in Hexi Corridor. Carrying out the research of Yumushan Fault will help explain the kinematics characteristics of the northern Yumushan active fault and its response to the northeastward growth of the Tibetan plateau.Because of limited technology conditions of the time, different research emphases and some other reasons, previous research results differ dramatically. This paper summarizes the last 20 years researches from the perspectives of fault slip rates, paleao-earthquake characteristics and tectonic deformation. Using aerial-photo morphological analysis, field investigation, optical simulated luminescence(OSL)dating of alluvial surfaces and topographic profiles, we calculate the vertical slip rate and strike-slip rate at the typical site in the northern Yumushan Fault, which is(0.55±0.15)mm/a and(0.95±0.11), respectively. On the controversial problems, namely "the Luotuo(Camel)city scarp" and the 180 A.D. Biaoshi earthquake, we use aerial-photo analysis, particular field investigation and typical profile dating. We concluded that "Luotuo city scarp" is the ruin of ancient diversion works rather than the fault scarp of the 180 A.D. Biaoshi earthquake. Combining the topographic profiles of the mountain range with fault characteristics, we believe Yumu Shan is a part of Qilian Shan. The uplift of Yumu Shan is the result of Qilian Shan and Yumu Shan itself pushing northwards. Topographic profile along the crest of the Yumu Shan illustrates the decrease from its center to the tips, which is similar to the vertical slip rates and the height of fault scarp. These show that Yumu Shan is controlled by fault extension and grows laterally and vertically. At present, fault activities are still concentrated near the north foot of Yumu Shan, and the mountain ranges continue to rise since late Cenozoic.