The~1600km long, left-reverse strike-slip active Altyn Tagh fault system defines the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau, and serves as an important tectonic boundary in models describing the northward expansion of the plateau. The Altyn Tagh fault system has complex geometries, and consists mainly of the left-lateral South Altyn Fault to the south, the left-reverse or reverse-dominated North Altyn Fault to the north, and the intervening Altyn Shan. Most of the existing studies focus on the more active South Altyn Tagh Fault, but few has paid attention to the North Altyn Fault, which separates the Tarim Basin to the north from the Altyn Shan to the south, and figures importantly in understanding the tectonic evolution of the entire fault system. The kinematics of the North Altyn Fault in the Cenozoic remains disputed in whether it is a left-reverse or reverse-dominated fault. Herein, we used tectonic geomorphology analysis to systematically study the characteristics of active tectonics on the North Altyn Fault in the Quaternary. There are dozens of rivers in the Altyn Shan between the South Altyn Tagh Fault and North Altyn Fault, the majority of which originate near the South Altyn Tagh Fault and flow northward across the North Altyn Fault into the Tarim Basin. These rivers contain abundant information about the Quaternary tectonic activity of the North Altyn Fault. We used SRTM DEM data to extract the geomorphic features of 18 rivers and related catchment basins flowing across the North Altyn Fault. Geomorphic index, such as river longitudinal profiles, standardized river length-gradient index(SLK), normalized river steepness index(K_sn), area-elevation curves and their integrals(HI)of catchment basins, are analyzed. The conclusions are drawn as follows.
The geomorphological indexes show that the eastern part of the North Altyn Fault is geomorphologically more active than the western part. Along the western part of the North Altyn Fault, the river longitudinal profile and the area-elevation curves of the corresponding catchment basins are both concave upward, with many small knickpoints on the river profile and relatively low SLK, K_sn, and HI values. On the contrary, most of the river profiles in the eastern part of the fault are convex or linear, with much larger knickpoints on the hanging wall of the North Altyn Fault, coinciding with high SLK and K_sn values. The associated area-elevation curves are mainly S-shaped and convex, and the HI values are relatively large. Tectonic geomorphic index is generally affected by lithology, climate and tectonics. The lithology of the hanging wall of the North Altyn Fault is relatively simple, consisting mainly of Precambrian metamorphic rocks intruded by some granite. There is no obvious difference in rock strength between the entire eastern and western sections. In addition, since the rivers are all located in the Altyn Shan and the area involved is not large, there is also no significant climatic variation along the strike of the North Altyn Fault in the Quaternary. Therefore, the difference of geomorphological activities between the parts should not be caused by difference in lithology and climate. Instead, we found that the eastern part of the North Altyn Fault is located to the north of the Akato restraining double bend, which features intense crustal shortening due to change of the fault strike, on the active South Altyn Tagh Fault. As such, we infer that the strong geomorphic activity of the eastern part of the North Altyn Fault likely results from intense lateral contraction from the Akato restraining double bend to the south, suggesting intimate interplay between the South Altyn Tagh Fault and the North Altyn Fault.
Our findings also imply that the North Altyn Fault likely changed from a strike-slip-dominated fault to a reverse-dominated fault in the late Cenozoic. It can be seen from the extracted river morphology that all rivers are relatively straight when passing through the North Altyn Fault, without systematic left-lateral deflection. The geomorphic indexes, such as the locations of river knickpoint, high SLK and K_sn value, which reflect where the relatively rapid tectonic uplift has occurred, all appear in the hanging wall of the North Altyn Fault. Moreover, a south-dipping frontal fault is discovered in the north of the North Altyn Fault. This fault cut and uplifted the Quaternary alluvial fan in the hanging wall, and the amount of uplift decreases gradually from middle to both sides until it vanishes, forming a bilaterally symmetric anticline approximately parallel to the fault. The rivers across through the fault are straight and undeflected systematically. All these show typical characteristics associated with a thrust fault. We thus infer that the North Altyn Fault is dominated by reverse dip-slip in the late Quaternary. Together with the Cenozoic strike-slip motion on the North Altyn Fault by the measurement of kinematic indicators, a transition from strike-slip-dominated to reverse-dominated in the late Cenozoic is thus expected.

In this study, we described a 14km-long paleoearthquakes surface rupture across the salt flats of western Qaidam Basin, 10km south of the Xorkol segment of the central Altyn Tagh Fault, with satellite images interpretation and field investigation methods. The surface rupture strikes on average about N80°E sub-parallel to the main Altyn Tagh Fault, but is composed of several stepping segments with markedly different strike ranging from 68°N~87°E. The surface rupture is marked by pressure ridges, sub-fault strands, tension-gashes, pull-apart and faulted basins, likely caused by left-lateral strike-slip faulting. More than 30 pressure ridges can be distinguished with various rectangular, elliptical or elongated shapes. Most long axis of the ridges are oblique(90°N~140°E)to, but a few are nearly parallel to the surface rupture strike. The ridge sizes vary also, with heights from 1 to 15m, widths from several to 60m, and lengths from 10 to 100m. The overall size of these pressure ridges is similar to those found along the Altyn Tagh Fault, for instance, south of Pingding Shan or across Xorkol. Right-stepping 0.5~1m-deep gashes or sub-faults, with lengths from a few meters to several hundred meters, are distributed obliquely between ridges at an angle reaching 30°. The sub-faults are characterized with SE or NW facing 0.5~1m-high scarps. Several pull-apart and faulted basins are bounded by faults along the eastern part of the surface rupture. One large pull-apart basins are 6~7m deep and 400m wide. A faulted basin, 80m wide, 500m long and 3m deep, is bounded by 2 left-stepping left-lateral faults and 4 right-stepping normal faults. Two to three m-wide gashes are often seen on pressure ridges, and some ridges are left-laterally faulted and cut into several parts, probably owing to the occurrence of repetitive earthquakes. The OSL dating indicates that the most recent rupture might occur during Holocene.
    Southwestwards the rupture trace disappears a few hundred meters north of a south dipping thrust scarp bounding uplifted and folded Plio-Quaternary sediments to the south. Thrust scarps can be followed southwestward for another 12km and suggest a connection with the south Pingding Shan Fault, a left-lateral splay of the main Altyn Tagh Fault. To the northeast the rupture trace progressively veers to the east and is seen cross-cutting the bajada south of Datonggou Nanshan and merging with active thrusts clearly outlined by south facing cumulative scarps across the fans. The geometry of this strike-slip fault trace and the clear young seismic geomorphology typifies the present and tectonically active link between left-lateral strike-slip faulting and thrusting along the eastern termination of the Altyn Tagh Fault, a process responsible for the growth of the Tibetan plateau at its northeastern margin. The discrete relation between thrusting and strike-slip faulting suggests discontinuous transfer of strain from strike-slip faulting to thrusting and thus stepwise northeastward slip-rate decrease along the Altyn Tagh Fault after each strike-slip/thrust junction.