Field investigation on the surface ruptures of the M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake along the segment between Beichuan and Qingchuan shows that there is one surface rupture zone developed on this segment,which extends generally along the Beichuan-Qingchuan Fault zone.Observation at Huangjiaba Chenjiaba,Guixi,Pingtong,Nanba,and Shikan suggests that the surface ruptures on this segment spread continuously along the trend of the fault,with single structure and a length of 60～90km.The surface rupture has not reached Guanzhuang of Qingchuan county.The observable rupture zone is about 62km,between Beichuan and Shikan,trending 20°～55° in general,dipping NW with an angle of 70°,showing mainly thrusting with dextral strike-slipping.The most distinct feature of the surface ruptures of this earthquake is the vertical surface bending,which indicates the thrusting of the deep fault.Its horizontal motion on this segment displays as dextral strike slipping,without sinistral slipping component.The value of the vertical coseismic displacements decreases gradually from 3m at Huangjiaba to about 1.5m at Nanba and Shikan;The amount of the dextral displacements does not change evidently,generally between 1.5m and 2.0m.Features of the surface rupture show that the causative tectonics of this M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake is the Yingxiu-Beichuan-Qingchuan Fault,whose movement is characterized mainly by thrusting,with a dextral slipping component,and the thrusting direction is from west to east.

Field investigations show that the M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake of 12^th May 2008 ruptured two NW-dipping imbricate reverse faults along the Longmenshan Fault zone at the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau.This earthquake generated a 240km long surface rupture along the Beichuan-Yingxiu Fault characterized by right-lateral oblique faulting and a 90km long surface rupture along the Guanxian-Jiangyou Fault characterized by dip-slip reverse faulting.Maximum vertical and horizontal dispacements of 6.2m and 4.9m,respectively,were observed along the Beichuan-Yingxiu Fault,whereas a maximum vertical displacement of 3.5m occurred along the Guanxian-jiangyou Fault.This co-seismic surface rupture pattern,involving multiple structures,is among the most complicated of recent great earthquakes.Its surface rupture length is the longest among the co-seismic surface rupture zones for reverse faulting events ever reported.Aftershocks recorded by local network clearly outline the hanging wall of the Beichuan-Yingxiu Fault and indicate that the fault dips about 47? to the west.Industry seismic lines,in addition to surface ruptures and aftershocks,allow us to build a 3D model for the rupture geometry that shows crustal shortening is the dominant process along the Longmen Shan to accommodate long-term deformation.Oblique thrusting accomplished by the earthquake indicates that the east-southeastward extrusion of Tibet Plateau accommodates,in part,the continuing penetration of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate,and this extrusion is transformed at the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau into crustal thickening and shortening along the Longmenshan Fault zone that is responsible for the growth of high topography in the region.

Several dark-green or yellow-brown layers with different thickness have been found in the late Quaternary strata in the area of the Changjiang River and Jiantangjiang River. They are very hard,called “hard clay”. The top hard clay layer is called the first hard clay. There are the marine sediments on the first hard clay. The boundary of Holocene has been discussed based on the first hard clay. The first hard clay is found in Ningbo region too. 19 samples from the first hard clay,the marine sediments on the first hard clay and the layer under the first hard clay,were dated using optical luminescence and 14 C dating method to provide age control of its development. According to our dating results,the age of the original material of the first hard clay is 45～55ka BP. The first hard clay is uncontinuously distributed,being eroded by the later stages transgression in some places,and unconformable with the upper marine sediments. The lower limit of the marine bed may not be simply delineated as the Holocene boundary. It is possible that the marine sediments occurred at the end of late Pleistocene.