Surface rupture zone of historical earthquake is the most intuitive geomorphological response to fault activity. The rupture pattern, coseismic displacement and its geometric spatial distribution are important for determining segmentation and long-term movement behaviors of active fault. In the Barkol Basin of Xinjiang, according to the comprehensive result from remote sensing image interpretation, field surgery, high-resolution small unmanned aerial vehicles photography, terrain deformation measurements and trench excavation on geomorphological points, not only the new surface ruptures of the two M71/2 historical earthquakes in Barkol in 1842 and 1914 were found and defined between Xiongkuer and the southwest of Barkol County in southwestern part of the basin, but also the latest deformation evidence of the EW fold-up faults in the eastern part of the Basin was identified.
Combined with the ancient document analysis of the two historical earthquakes, we finally conclude that the surface rupture zone in the western segment on the southern margin of the Barkol Basin is the seismogenic structure of the M71/2 earthquake in 1842. The surface rupture zone is mainly characterized by left-lateral strike-slip, roughly with en echelon arrangement spreading from Xiongkuer to the south of Barkol County. The length of the surface rupture zone determined by field investigation is at least about 65km, and the maximum horizontal displacement appears around the Xiongkuer Village. At the same time, the surface rupture zone gradually shows more significant thrust extrusion from west to east, and has a tendency of extension towards the central of the Barkol Basin. The average observed displacement of the entire surface rupture obtained by counting the coseismic offsets of multiple faulted gullies is(4.1±1.0)m, with the coseismic characteristic displacement of ~4m. The epicenter position should appear at the place with the largest horizontal dislocation amount near Xiongkuer Village.
In addition, the length of the fold-blind fault zone in the vicinity of the Kuisu Town and the eastward extension to the Yanchi Township of the Yiwu Basin, which was discovered in the center of the Barkol Basin, is about 90km. The folded blind fault causes significant fold deformation in the latest sedimentary strata such as floodplain, and in addition, as shown on many outcrop sections, the bending-moment faults associated with the coseismic fold deformation have ruptured the surface. Therefore, the location of the epicenter should be located at the maximum fold deformation, which is near the Kuisu Town. The new research results not only further improve the understanding of the epicenter location and seismogenic faults of the two historical earthquakes in the Barkol Basin, but also provide an important reference for analyzing regional seismic hazards.

The Xiaojiang fault zone is located in the southeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau, the boundary faults of Sichuan-Yunnan block and South China block. The largest historical earthquake in Yunnan Province, with magnitude 8 occurred on the western branch of the Xiaojiang Fault in Songming County, 1833. Research on the Late Quaternary surface deformation and strong earthquake rupture behavior on the Xiaojiang Fault is crucial to understand the future seismic risk of the fault zone and the Sichuan-Yunnan region, even crucial for the study of tectonic evolution of the southeastern margin of Tibetan plateau. We have some new understanding through several large trenches excavated on the western branch of the Xiaojiang fault zone. We excavated a large trench at Caohaizi and identified six paleoseismic events, named U through Z from the oldest to the youngest. Ages of these six events are constrained at 40000-36300BC, 35400-24800BC, 9500BC-500AD, 390-720AD, 1120-1620AD and 1750AD-present. The Ganhaizi trench revealed three paleoearthquakes, named GHZ-E1 to GHZ-E3 from the oldest to the youngest. Ages of the three events are constrained at 3300BC-400AD, 770-1120AD, 1460AD-present. The Dafendi trench revealed three paleoearthquakes, named E1 to E3 from the oldest to the youngest, and their ages are constrained at 22300-19600BC, 18820-18400BC, and 18250-present. Caohaizi and Ganhaizi trenches are excavated on the western branch of the Xiaojiang Fault, the distance between them is 400m. We constrained four late Holocene paleoearthquakes with progressive constraining method, which are respectively at 500-720AD, 770-1120AD, AD 1460-1620 and 1833AD, with an average recurrence interval of 370~440a. Large earthquake recurrence in the late Holocene is less than the recurrence interval of~900a as proposed in the previous studies. Thus, the seismic hazard on the Xiaojiang Fault should be reevaluated. We excavated a large trench at Dafendi, about 30km away south of Caohaizi trench. Combining with previous paleoseismological research, it is found that the western branch of Xiaojiang Fault was likely to be dominated by segmented rupturing in the period from late of Late Pleistocene to early and middle Holocene, while it was characterized by large earthquakes clustering and whole segment rupturing since late Holocene.

Alluvial fans that are in the process of development always show complex geomorphic features due to natural modification. Accordingly, analyzing these fans whether to be influenced by tectonic deformation is one of the technique difficulties in active tectonic studies. Complex alluvial fans are the focus of the study of active tectonics such as fracture mapping and activity behavior analysis, for they have often retained important structural information. Traditional measurement methods, such as satellite remote sensing, RTK GPS and Lidar, are difficult to meet the demand for the study of micro tectonic deformation because of the reason of accuracy or cost performance. The recent UAV photogrammetry technology, due to its many advantages such as low cost, high resolution, and efficiency of exporting DEM and DOM data, has been widely used in three-dimensional modeling, ground mapping and other fields. In the quantitative study of active tectonics, this technology fills up the deficiency in the research of the micro structure of the traditional measurement. Through detailed field investigations and paleoseismic trenching, we further used this technology to obtain the topographic data of a complex alluvial fan located at the southern marginal fault of Barkol Basin, Xinjiang. Pointing at the alluvial fans that are in the process of development, and on the basis of topographic analysis and image processing for DEM, we take the research method of secondary partitions of the geomorphic surface and cut the alluvial fans longitudinally according to the difference of its age. Through the establishment of profile cluster within each partition, separate analysis and data contrast with the adjacent partitions, we acquired the tectonic activity information during the development of alluvial fan. The tectonic vertical deformation of this alluvial fan is about 2.5m.

Cascade rupture events often occur along large strike-slip fault zone.The 1920 AD M 8¹/₂ earthquake ruptured all 3 segments of the Haiyuan Fault,and the Salt Lake pull-apart basin is the boundary between the west and middle segment of the fault.The data of trenching and drilling reveal 7 events occurring since last stage of late Pleistocene,and the two youngest events are associated with the historical records of 1092 AD (possibly) and 1920 AD respectively.These events are all large earthquakes with magnitude M>8,and the recurrence of them is characterized by earthquake clusters alternating with a single event.Now it is in the latest cluster which may last about 1000 years.Comparison of the paleoseismic sequence of this study and previous results reveals that the cross-basin fault in the Salt Lake pull-apart basin does not always rupture when cascade rupture events occur along the Haiyuan Fault,and likely ruptures only when the magnitude of the events is large (maybe M>8).Though there are many advantages in paleoseismic study in pull-apart basin,we should avoid getting the paleoseismic history of major strike-slip fault zones only depending on the rupture records of inner faults in pull-apart basins with large scale (maybe a width more than 3km).

As we all know, Eastern Tienshan and Altaid in central Asia accommodate~10mm/a crustal shortening, accounting for 1/4 shortening between India and Eurasia(~40mm/a). A substantial portion of these deformations was absorbed in Altaid in the north through a combination of right-lateral strike-slip and counterclockwise vertical axis rotation of crustal blocks, but how the crustal deformation was accommodated in Eastern Tienshan is still in debate. Based on the field investigation in Jianquanzi, Barkol Tagh and Karlik Tagh in Eastern Tienshan in recent years, we identified a sinistral strike-slip fault system mapped in Eastern Tienshan. From west to east, the Jianquanzi-Tuolaiquan Fault(JTF), South Barkol Basin Fault (SBF) and Central Karliktagh Fault(CKF)constitute the tectonic frame of this large-scale fault system, which plays an important role in adjusting the strain distribution during the process of orogening in Eastern Tienshan in Quaternary even since Ceonozoic era. The fault system displays different late-Quaternary characteristics when its orientation changes with regional tectonic principal stress(NE). Specifically, the EW-trending JTF exhibits sinistral slip with little vertical component which can extend to Xiongkuer segment on EW-NW-trending SBF. The EW-NW SBF displays sinistral slip from east of Luobaoquanto, Barkol County and reverse slip with little horizontal component at east of Barkol County. In easternmost, the WNW-EW trending CKF shows sinistral slip with no obvious vertical motion. This fault system's activity coupled in the orogenic process of easternmost Tienshan, adjusting and accommodating a portion of deformation included in the orogenic process, and in turn we suggest that the deformation associated with range front fault in the orogen root may not be the only decisive way of deformation releasing.

The distribution of earthquake rupture zone plays a very important role in determining location of epicenter and magnitude of historical earthquake. There is still argument about the seismogenic structure of the 1842 M7 Balikun earthquake and the 1914 M7 1/2 Balikun earthquake in the historical records in eastern Tienshan. Through field geological survey, we confirm that there exist 3 rupture zones in Eastern Tienshan. These rupture zones, Tazibulake rupture zone on the Jian Quanzi-Luo Baoquan Fault, north of Shanshan, Xiong Kuer rupture zone on the south Balikun Basin Fault and Yanchi rupture zone on the south Yiwu Basin Fault, are closely related to 2 historical earthquakes. Based on historical literature and current geological evidence analysis, we infer that Xiong Kuer rupture zone was produced by 1842 M7 earthquake and Yanchi rupture zone by 1914 M7 1/2 earthquake, while Tazibukale rupture zone may represent another unrecorded historical event. South Balikun Basin Fault disturbs Quaternary stratigraphy which has a ¹⁴C age of 3110±30 B.P in the south of Balikun County, ~100km to the east of Xiong Kuer rupture zone, therefore we can't preclude the possibility that Xiong Kuer rupture zone extends to the south of Balikun County. This region overlaps with the meizoseismal area based on the literature document, together with the fact that the impact of 1842 earthquake is no less than 1914 earthquake, we believe that the magnitude of 1842 earthquake is no less than that of the 1914 earthquake.

Hetao fault-depression zone, the largest one of 4 fault-depression zones around the Ordos block, is characterized by intense tectonic activities. According to historical records, 2 large earthquakes, occurring in 849AD and 7BC respectively, were recognized to be located at this zone. However, there is still some dispute about the seismogenic structure of the 849AD earthquake, and there is no tangible geological evidence to support the view that the 7BC event occurred in Hetao fault-depression. In this paper, based on the image interpretation(from Google Earth), field investigation, trench excavation, and ¹⁴C and single grain OSL dating, we analyzed the tectonic landform and paleoseismic events on the Daqingshan piedmont fault, Wulashan piedmont fault and Langshan piedmont fault in the Hetao fault-depression zone. Furthermore, a comparative study of the latest rupture events on the 3 active faults was carried out. In order to lower the uncertainty of paleoseismic event dating, several effective measures, such as sampling according to the stratigraphic sequence, collecting multi samples in important strata, were adopted. Combining the previous achievements, the seismogenic structures of the 849AD earthquake and the 7BC earthquake were discussed. The results support that the Daqingshan piedmont fault is the seismogenic structure of the 849AD earthquake, and the latest surface rupture event of the Langshan piedmont fault may be related to the 7BC earthquake.

An M_S 7.0 earthquake attacked southern segment of the Longmenshan Fault zone on 20 April 2013, in Lushan County, Sichuan Province, southwest of China. The seismic intensity of the meizoseismal area of the Lushan event is Ⅰ Ⅹ(the Chinese Seismic Intensity Scale). The meizoseismal area strikes NE, and is approximately 24km long and 11km wide. In the post-earthquake emergency scientific survey, some members found a series of co-seismic surface rupture signs at Longmen Township, one of the most damaged areas by this quake, north of Lushan County. The reported typical surface rupture signs include intensive shear-fissures along the channel at Zhanghuo Group, rotation of bricks near a white tower at Wanghuo Group, and lots of extensive cracks. On the basis of analyzing such surface rupture signs, Han et al., (2013)deduced that there might be a blind fault along Lushan County and Longmen Township(named the Lushan-Longmen presumed blind fault), and this fault probably was the seismogenic fault. Therefore, to confirm whether there is a potential seismogenic fault along Lushan and Longmen is very important not only to research of seismogenic fault for this earthquake but also to the reconstruction in the disaster-hit areas. Through surface ruptures surveying and trench excavating, we conclude that: there are no co-seismic surface ruptures at Longmen. Meanwhile, artificial seismic prospecting outcome, which shows nonexistence of the Lushan-Longmen presumed blind fault at least 800m below the ground surface, also supports our idea. Consequently, the reported shear-fissures and extensive cracks are not produced by the seismogenic fault, but most likely by ground shaking during the earthquake.