The M_S7.1 earthquake in Wushi, Xinjiang on January 23, 2024, represents the largest earthquake in the Tianshan seismic belt since the 1992 Suusamyr M_S7.3 earthquake in Kyrgyzstan. Preliminary precise aftershock localization and initial field investigations indicate an NE-trending aftershock zone with a length of 62km that is concentrated at the mountain-basin transition area. This event produced geological hazards, including slope instability, rockfalls, rolling stones, and ground fissures, primarily within a 30-kilometer radius around the epicenter. The epicenter, located approximately 7 kilometers north of the precise positioning in this study, witnessed a rapid decrease in geological hazards such as collapses, with no discernible fresh activity observed on the steep fault scarp along the mountainfront. Consequently, it is inferred that the causative fault for this main shock may be an NW-dipping reverse fault, with potential rupture not reaching the surface.

Moreover, a surface rupture zone with a general trend of N60°E, extending approximately 2 kilometers, and displaying a maximum vertical offset of 1m, was identified on the western side of the micro-epicenter at the Qialemati River. This rupture zone predominantly follows the pre-existing fault scarp on higher geomorphic surfaces, indicating that it is not new. Its characteristics are mainly controlled by a southeast-dipping reverse fault, opposite in dip to the causative fault of the main shock. The scale of this 2-kilometer-long surface rupture zone is notably smaller than the aftershock zone of the Wushi M_S7.1 earthquake. Further investigation is warranted to elucidate whether or not the M_S5.7 aftershock and the relationship between the SE-dipping reverse fault responsible for the surface rupture and the NW-dipping causative fault of the main shock produced it.

In recent years, the southern Liaoning Province is the main area of seismic activity in Liaoning Province, and the main geological structure units in this area include the Liaohe rift and Liaodong uplift in the east. As an important manifestation of modern tectonic activity, earthquakes are less distributed in Liaohe rift. Most of the seismic activities are concentrated in eastern Liaoning uplift area on the east side of Liaohe rift. The structure in this area is relatively complex. The revival of old faults during Quaternary is obvious, and there are more than 10 Quaternary faults. Among them, Haichenghe Fault and Jinzhou Fault are the faults with most earthquakes. The 1975 Haicheng M_S7.3 earthquake occurred in the Haichenghe Fault and the 1999 Xiuyan M_S5.4 earthquake occurred in the east of the fault.
In this paper, the seismic phase bulletins are used for earthquakes from August 1975 to December 2017 recorded by 67 regional seismic stations of Liaoning Province. These stations were transformed during the Tenth Five-year Plan period. Using the double-difference tomography and tomoDD program, we relocated the earthquakes and inversed the velocity structures of the southern Liaoning area.
In the study, grid method is used for model parameterization of seismic tomography, ART-PB is used for forward calculation, damped least square method is used in inversion, and checkerboard test is used for the solution evaluation. The theoretical travel time is forward calculated by taking the checkerboard velocity model of imaging meshing and plus or minus 5% of anomaly as the theoretical model. The checkerboard test results show that the checkerboard P-wave velocity model at the depths of 4km, 13km, 24km and 35km in the study area can be restored completely, and most areas at the depth of 33km can also be restored completely.
We calculated and got the relocations of almost all of the earthquakes in southern Liaoning area and obtained a better distribution of P wave velocities at the depth of 4km, 13km, 24km and 33km. The results show that earthquakes mainly concentrated in two areas: the Haicheng aftershock area and the Gaizhou earthquake swarm activity area. The distribution of seismicity in this area is obvious in NW direction.
The result of P-wave tomography in 4km depth indicates the consistent characteristics of shallow velocity structure with the surface geological structure in southern Liaoning Province area. The two sides of the Tanlu fault zone are characterized by different velocity structures. The high and low velocity discontinuities are located in the Tan Lu fault zone, which is in good agreement with the geological structure of the region. In Haichenghe Fault in the Haicheng aftershock area, there are high-velocity zone in the shallow layer and low-velocity zone in the depth of 4~12km, and the low-velocity zone intrudes and deepens eastward. The Xiuyan earthquake with M_S5.4 in 1999 occurred on the boundary section of high and low velocity zones. At the same time, there is a gap between Xiuyan and Haicheng sequences, which is located at the junction of high and low velocities, and there is a significant low-velocity zone underground in the region. From the perspective of mechanism of the seismogenic model, this velocity structure model may generate large earthquakes.

There are high-velocity zones at the ends of different segments of Jinzhou Fault, and the Gaizhou earthquake swarm occurred in the high-velocity area at the end of the fault. It is speculated that the activity of the Gaizhou earthquake swarm may be caused by the rise of water saturation in rocks due to the intrusion of liquid under the condition of stress accumulation.

The most significant feature of active faults on remote sensing images is fault lineament. How to identify and extract fault lineament is an important content of active fault research. The rapid development of remote sensing technology has provided people with extremely rich remote sensing data, and has also created the problem of how to choose suitable data for fault interpretation. In the traditional fault interpretation, people pay more attention to high-resolution optical images and high-resolution DEM, but optical remote sensing images are greatly affected by factors such as weather condition, vegetation and human impacts, and the time and economic costs for obtaining high-resolution DEM are relatively high. Due to the low resolution, the medium-resolution DEM(such as Aster GDEM, SRTM1, SRTM3, etc.)is generally used to automatically extract structural lineament, and then analyze the overall regional structural features, but it is rarely used to visually interpret active faults. ALOS-PALSAR DEM is generated from SAR images acquired by the phased array L-band synthetic aperture radar mission sensor of the Japanese ALOS satellite. It is currently a free DEM with the highest resolution(resolution of 12.5m)and the widest coverage. Based on ALOS-PALSAR DEM and ArcGIS 10.4 software, this paper generates a hillshade map and visually interprets the fault lineaments in the West Qinling Mountains. When generating a hillshade map, we set the light azimuths to be oblique or orthogonal to the overall trend of the linear structures, the light azimuths to be consistent with the slope direction of the hillslope, and the light dips to be a medium incident angle. Based on the hillshade map generated from ALOS-PALSAR DEM, this paper summarizes the typical performance and interpretation markers of fault lineaments on the hillshade map(generated by DEM), and visually interprets the V-shaped fault system in West Qinling Mountains where the research on fault geometry is limited based on the interpretation markers. The results of the research are as follows: First, this study discovers a number of fault lineament zones, including the fault lineament located between the Lintan-Dangchang Fault and the Guanggaishan-Dieshan Fault, the NE-directed fault lineament zone between the Lixian-Luojiapu Fault and the Liangdang-Jiangluo Fault, and the arc-shaped dense fault lineament zones distributed south of the Hanan-Daoqizi Fault and the Wudu-Kangxian Fault; Second, this study completes the geometric distribution images of the known active faults, such as the western and eastern sections of the Lintan-Dangchang Fault, the western and eastern sections of the Liangdang-Jiangluo Fault; Third, fault lineaments in the West Qinling Mountains exhibit a “V” shape, with two groups of fault lineaments trending NW and NE, whose tectonic transformation mainly consists of two kinds: mutual cutting and arc transition. The Lintan-Dangchang Fault cuts the Lixian-Luojiapu Fault, the Lintan-Dangchang Fault and the Guanggaishan-Dieshan Fault are connected with the Liangdang-Jiangluo Fault in arc shape, and the Tazang Fault is connected with the Hanan-Daoqizi Fault in arc shape. The research results show that ALOS-PALSAR DEM has an outstanding capability to display fault lineaments due to its topographic attributes and strong surface penetration. In circumstances when the surface is artificially modified strongly, the spectrum of ground objects is complex and the vegetation is dense, the ALOS-PALSAR DEM can display fault lineament that cannot be displayed on optical remote sensing images, indicating that the medium-resolution DEM is an effective supplement to high-resolution optical remote sensing images in the fault lineament interpretation. The research results are of great significance for improving the geometric image of the V-shaped fault system in the West Qinling Mountains. It is also the basis for further research on fault geometry, kinematics, regional geodynamics and seismic hazard.

Located in the intervening zone between Tibetan plateau and surrounding blocks, the Lintan-Dangchang Fault(LDF)is characterized by north-protruding arc-shape, complex structures and intense fault activity. Quantitative studies on its new activity play a key role in searching the seismogenic mechanism, building regional tectonic model and understanding the tectonic interaction between Tibetan plateau and surrounding blocks. The LDF has strong neotectonic activities, and moderate-strong earthquakes occur frequently(three M6~7 earthquakes occurred in the past 500 years, including the July 22nd, 2013, Minxian-Zhangxian M_S6.6 earthquake), but the new activity of the fault is poorly known, the geological and geomorphological evidence of the Holocene activity has not been reported yet. Based on remote sensing interpretation and macro-landform analysis, this paper studies the long-term performance of LDF. Based on the study of fault activity, unmanned aircraft vehicle photogrammetry and differential GPS, radiocarbon dating, etc., the latest activity of LDF is quantitatively studied. Then the research results, historical strong earthquakes and small earthquake distribution are comprehensively analyzed for studying the seismogenic mechanism and constructing regional tectonic models. The results are as follows: Firstly, the fault geometry is complex and there are many branch faults. According to the convergence degree of the fault trace and the fault-controlled macroscopic topography, the LDF is divided into three segments: the west, the middle and the east. The west segment contains two fault branches(the south and the north)and the south Hezuo Fault. The south branch of the west segment mainly dominates the Jicang Neogene Basin, and the south Hezuo Fault controls the south boundary of Hezuo Basin. The middle segment has more convergent and stable trace, consisting of the main fault and south Hezuo Fault, and these faults separate the main planation surface of the Tibetan plateau and Lintan Basin surface geologically and geomorphologically. The fault traces in the east segment are sparsely distributed, and the terrain is characterized by hundreds of meters of uplifts. The branch faults include the main fault, Hetuo Fault, Muzhailing Fault and Bolinkou Fault, each controlling differential topography. Secondly, the motion property of the LDF is mainly left-lateral strike-slip, with a relative smaller portion of vertical slip. The left-lateral strike-slip offset the Taohe River and its tributaries, gullies and ridges synchronously, and the maximum left-lateral displacement of the tributary of Taohe River can reach 3km. Meanwhile, the pull-apart basins and push-up ridges associated with the left-lateral fault slip are also developed in the fault zone. The performance of vertical slip includes tilting of the main planation surface, vertical offsets of the boundary and interior of Neogene basin and hundred meter-scale differential topography. The vertical offset of the Neogene is 300~500m. Thirdly, one fault profile was newly discovered in Gongqia Village, revealing a complete sequence of pre-earthquake-coseismic-postseismic deposition, and this event was constrained by the radiocarbon ages of pre-earthquake and post-earthquake deposition. The event was constrained to be 2090~7745aBP(confidence 2σ), which for the first time confirmed the Holocene activity of the fault. Fourthly, a gully with two terraces at least on the west side of Zhuangzi Village in the east segment of the main fault retains a typical faulted landform. The T2/T1 terrace riser of the gully has a left-handed dislocation of 6.3~11.8m, and the scarp height on terrace T2 is 0.4~0.7m, the radiocarbon age of the terrace T2 is7170~7310aBP, so the derived left-lateral strike-slip rate since the early Holocene in the east segment of the main fault is 0.86~1.65mm/a, and the vertical slip rate is 0.05~0.10mm/a. The derived slip rates are in line with the regional tectonic model proposed by the predecessors, so the LDF plays an important role in the internal deformation of the West Qinling. The clockwise rotation of the middle to east segments of the LDF acts as an obstacle to the left-lateral strike-slip motion, which inevitably leads to the redistribution and rapid release of stress, so earthquakes in the middle-east segment of the LDF are unusually frequent.

Tianshan is one of the longest and most active intracontinental orogenic belts in the world. Due to the collision between Indian and Eurasian plates since Cenozoic, the Tianshan has been suffering from intense compression, shortening and uplifting. With the continuous extension of deformation to the foreland direction, a series of active reverse fault fold belts have been formed. The Xihu anticline is the fourth row of active fold reverse fault zone on the leading edge of the north Tianshan foreland basin. For the north Tianshan Mountains, predecessors have carried out a lot of research on the activity of the second and third rows of the active fold-reverse faults, and achieved fruitful results. But there is no systematic study on the Quaternary activities of the Xihu anticline zone. How is the structural belt distributed in space?What are the geometric and kinematic characteristics?What are the fold types and growth mechanism?How does the deformation amount and characteristics of anticline change?In view of these problems, we chose Xihu anticline as the research object. Through the analysis of surface geology, topography and geomorphology and the interpretation of seismic reflection profile across the anticline, we studied the geometry, kinematic characteristics, fold type and growth mechanism of the structural belt, and calculated the shortening, uplift and interlayer strain of the anticline by area depth strain analysis.
In this paper, by interpreting the five seismic reflection profiles across the anticline belt, and combining the characteristics of surface geology and geomorphology, we studied the types, growth mechanism, geometry and kinematics characteristics, and deformation amount of the fold. The deformation length of Xihu anticline is more than 47km from west to east, in which the hidden length is more than 14km. The maximum deformation width of the exposed area is 8.5km. The Xihu anticline is characterized by small surface deformation, simple structural style and symmetrical occurrence. The interpretation of seismic reflection profile shows that the deep structural style of the anticline is relatively complex. In addition to the continuous development of a series of secondary faults in the interior of Xihu anticline, an anticline with small deformation amplitude(Xihubei anticline)is continuously developed in the north of Xihu anticline. The terrain high point of Xihu anticline is located about 12km west of Kuitun River. The deformation amplitude decreases rapidly to the east and decreases slowly to the west, which is consistent with the interpretation results of seismic reflection profile and the calculation results of shortening. The Xihu anticline is a detachment fold with the growth type of limb rotation. The deformation of Xihu anticline is calculated by area depth strain analysis method. The shortening of five seismic reflection sections A, B, C, D and E is(650±70) m, (1 070±70) m, (780±50) m, (200±40) m and(130±30) m, respectively. The shortening amount is the largest near the seismic reflection profile B of the anticline, and decreases gradually along the strike to the east and west ends of the anticline, with a more rapidly decrease to the east, which indicates that the topographic high point is also a structural high point. The excess area caused by the inflow of external material or outflow of internal matter is between -0.34km² to 0.56km². The average shortening of the Xihubei anticline is between(60±10) m and(130±40) m, and the excess area caused by the inflow of external material is between 0.50km² and 0.74km². The initial locations of the growth strata at the east part is about 1.9~2.0km underground, and the initial location of the growth strata at the west part is about 3.7km underground. We can see the strata overlying the Xihu anticline at 3.3km under ground, the strata above are basically not deformed, indicating that this section of the anticline is no longer active.

The Ebomiao Fault is a newly discovered active fault near the block boundary between the Tibetan plateau and the Alashan Block. This fault locates in the southern margin of the Beishan Mountain, which is generally considered to be a tectonically inactive zone, and active fault and earthquake are never expected to emerge, so the discovery of this active fault challenges the traditional thoughts. As a result, studying the new activity of this fault would shed new light on the neotectonic evolution of the Beishan Mountain and tectonic interaction effects between the Tibetan plateau and the Alashan Block. Based on some mature and traditional research methods of active tectonics such as satellite image interpretation, trenches excavation, differential GPS measurement, Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle Photogrammetry(UAVP), and Optical Stimulated Luminescence(OSL)dating, we quantitatively study the new activity features of the Ebomiao Fault.
    Through this study, we complete the fault geometry of the Ebomiao Fault and extend the fault eastward by 25km on the basis of the 20km-fault trace identified previously, the total length of the fault is extened to 45km, which is capable of generating magnitude 7 earthquake calculated from the empirical relationships between earthquake magnitude and fault length. The Ebomiao Fault is manifested as several segments of linear scarps on the land surface, the scarps are characterized by poor continuity because of seasonal flood erosion. Linear scarps are either north- or south-facing scarps that emerge intermittently. Fourteen differential GPS profiles show that the height of the north-facing scarps ranges from (0.22±0.02)m to (1.32±0.1)m, and seven differential GPS profiles show the height of south-facing scarps ranging from (0.33±0.1)m to (0.64±0.1)m. To clarify the causes of the linear scarps with opposite-facing directions, we dug seven trenches across these scarps, the trench profiles show that the south-dipping reverse faults dominate the north-facing scarps, the dipping angles range from 23° to 86°. However, the south-facing scarps are controlled by south-dipping normal faults with dipping angles spanning from 60° to 81°.
    The Ebomiao Fault is dominated by left-lateral strike-slip activity, with a small amount of vertical-slip component. From the submeter-resolution digital elevation models(DEM)constructed by UAVP, the measured left-lateral displacement of 19 gullies in the western segment of the Ebomiao Fault are(3.8±0.5)~(105±25)m, while the height of the north-facing scarps on this segment are(0.22±0.02)~(1.32±0.10)m(L₃-L₇), the left-lateral displacement is much larger than the scarp height. In this segment, there are three gullies preserving typical left-lateral offsets, one gully among them preserves two levels of alluvial terraces, the terrace riser between the upper terrace and the lower terrace is clear and shows horizontal offset. Based on high-resolution DEM interpretation and displacement restoration by LaDiCaoz software, the left-lateral displacement of the terrace riser is measured to be(16.7±0.5)m. The formation time of the terrace riser is approximated by the OSL age of the upper terrace, which is (11.2±1.5)ka BP at (0.68±0.03)m beneath the surface, and(11.4±0.6)ka at (0.89±0.03)m beneath the surface, the OSL age (11.2±1.5)ka BP at (0.68±0.03)m beneath the surface is more close to the formation time of the upper terrace because of a nearer distance to sediment contact between alluvial fan and eolian sand silt. Taking the (16.7±0.5)m left-lateral displacement of the terrace riser and the upper terrace age (11.2±1.5)ka, we calculate a left-lateral strike-slip rate of(1.52±0.25)mm/a for the Ebomiao Fault. The main source for the slip rate error is that the terrace risers on both walls of the fault are not definitely corresponded. The north wall of the fault is covered by eolian sand, we can only presume the location of terrace riser by geomorphic analysis. In addition, the samples used to calculate slip rate before were collected from the aeolian sand deposits on the north side of the fault, they are not sediments of the fan terraces, so they could not accurately define the formation age of the upper terrace. This study dates the upper terrace directly on the south wall of the fault.
    Since the late Cenozoic, the new activity of the Ebomiao Fault may have responded to the shear component of the relative movement between the Tibetan plateau and the Alashan Block under the macroscopic geological background of the northeastern-expanding of the Tibetan plateau. The north-facing fault scarps are dominated by south-dipping low-angle reverse faults, the emergence of this kind of faults(faults overthrusting from the Jinta Basin to the Beishan Mountain)suggests the far-field effect of block convergence between Tibetan plateau and Alashan Block, which results in the relative compression and crustal shortening. As for whether the Ebomiao Fault and Qilianshan thrust system are connected in the deep, more work is needed.

The western Qinling-Songpan tectonic node is located at the intersection of three major tectonic units of Tibetan plateau, the South China Block and the Ordos Block, and is at the forefront of the northeastern margin of Tibetan plateau. It has unique geological and dynamic characteristics from the surface to the deep underground. Based on the model for ductile flow in the lower crust, the geomorphological form is used to estimate the viscosity of the lower crust, and how the rheological process of the deep lithosphere acts on the upper crust deformation and structural geomorphology. And combined with GPS velocity field data, the current crustal deformation is analyzed to further study the regional dispersive deformation process. The results show that the viscosity of the north and northeast of the Zoige-Hongyuan Basin is smaller than that of the east and southeast. Therefore, the lower crust flow has a tendency of flowing to the northeastern low viscosity zone. We believe that when the lower crust flows from the central plain of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the rigid Sichuan Basin with a higher viscosity of the lower crust, it cannot flow into the basin, and part of the lower crust flow accumulate here, causing the upper crust to rise, and the uplifting led to the formation of the Longmen Mountains and a series of NNE-striking faults as well. When the lower crust flows to the northeast direction with a low viscosity, the brittle upper crust is driven together. Because of the remote effects from the Ordos Basin and the Longxi Basin, the mountains in this region are built slowly and the stepped arc-shaped topography of the current 3 000-meter contour line and the 2 000-meter contour line are developed. At the same time, a series of NWW-trending left-lateral strike-slip faults are developed. This explains the seismogenic tectonic model of the western Qinling-Songpan tectonic node as from NWW-trending left-lateral strike-slip faulting to the NNE-trending right-lateral strike-slip faulting and both having a thrust component. The current crustal movement direction revealed by the GPS velocity field is consistent with the direction of historical crust evolution of the lower crust revealed by the viscosity, implying that there is a good coupling relationship between the lower crust and upper crust. The results provide a basis for studying the development of fault systems with different strikes and properties, the formation of orogenic belts, the macroscopic geomorphological evolution characteristics, and the rheological and uplift dynamics of the lithosphere in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau.
In addition, our research differs from the previous studies in the spatial and temporal scale. Previous studies included either the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau or only the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, our analysis on the contours and topographical differences in the topography of the western Qinling-Songpan tectonic knot reveals that the study area is controlled by the lower crust flow. Our results are confirmed by various observations such as seismology, magnetotellurics and geophysical exploration. Moreover, the previous studies did not point out enough that the elevation contours are elliptical, and the elliptical geomorphology further illustrates that the formation and evolution of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has rheological characteristics and also conforms to the continuous deformation mode. Meanwhile, in terms of time scale, the evolution time of the study area is divided into three types of simulation time according to geochronology. And the GPS velocity field is introduced to observe the present-day crustal deformation.

The NE margin of Tibetan plateau outspreads northeastward in late Cenozoic. The west Qinling locates at intervening zone among Tibetan plateau, Sichuan Basin and Ordos block, and is bounded by East Kunlun Fault in the southwest, the north margin of West Qinling Fault in the northeast, and the Longmen Shan Fault in the southeast. The west Qinling has been experiencing intense tectonic deformation since late Cenozoic, accompanying by uplift of mountains, downward incision of rivers, frequent moderate-strong earthquakes, vertical and horizontal motion of secondary faults, and so on. A series of "V-shape" faults are developed in the transfer zone between East Kunlun Fault and north margin of West Qinling Fault. The NWW-NW striking faults include Tazang Fault, Bailongjiang Fault, Guanggai Shan-Die Shan Fault, and Lintan-Dangchang Fault; EW-NEE-NE striking faults include Ha'nan-Qingshanwan-Daoqizi Fault, Wudu-Kangxian Fault, Liangdang-Jiangluo Fault, and Lixian-Luojiapu Fault. Among them, the Southern Guanggai Shan-Die Shan Fault (SGDF)is one of the principle branch which accommodates strain partitioning between the East Kunlun Fault and the north margin of west Qinling Fault. Although some works have been done and published, the geometry of SGDF is still obscure due to forest cover, bad traffic, natural and manmade reworks. In this paper, we collected remote sensing images with various resolutions, categories, imaging time. The selected images include composite map of Landsat image (resolution is 28.5m among 1984-1997, and 14.5m among 1999-2003), Landsat-8 OLI image (15/30m), Gaofen-1 (2m/8m), Pleiades (0.5m/2m), DEM (~25m)and Google Earth image (submeter resolution). After that, we reinforced tectonic information of those images by Envi5.2 software, then we interpreted SGDF from those images. As indoor interpretation fulfilled, we testified indoor interpretation results through geomorphological and geological investigation. Finally, we got fault distribution of SGDF. Conclusions are as follows:First, remote sensing image selection and management is crucial to indoor interpretation, and image resolution is the only factor we commonly consider before, however, things have changed in places where there is complex weather and dense vegetation. Image categories, imaging time and bands selected for compositing in pretreatment and etc. should all be taken into consideration for better interpretation. Second, SGDF distributes from Lazikou town in the west, extending through Pingding town, Zhou County, Huama town, then terminating at Majie town of Wudu district in the east, the striking direction is mainly NWW, and it could be roughly divided into 3 segments:Lazikou-Heiyusi segment, Pingding-Huama segment, and Huama-Majie segment, with their length amounting to 47km, 32.5km, 47km, respectively. The arrangement pattern between Lazikou-Heiyusi segment and Pingding-Huama segment is right-stepping, and the arrangement pattern is left-stepping bending between Pingding-Huama segment and Huama-Majie segment. Third, SGDF controlled magnificent macro-topography, such as fault cliff, fault facet, which often constitute the boundary of intermontane basins or erosional surfaces to west of Minjiang River. Micro-geomorphic expressions were severely eroded and less preserved, including fault scarps, fault troughs, sinistral offset gullies and geomorphic surfaces. Finally, SGDF mainly expresses left-lateral dominated motion, only some short branch faults with diverting striking direction exhibit vertical dominated motion. The left-lateral dominated component with little vertical motion of SGDF is consistent with regional NWW-striking faults as Tazang Fault, Bailongjiang Fault and Lintan-Dangchang Fault, also in coincidence with regional boundary faults such as east Kunlun Fault and north margin of west Qinling Fault, illustrating regional deformation field is successive in west Qinling, and NWW striking faults show good inheritance and transitivity on differential slip rate between east Kunlun Fault and west Qinling Fault. The geometry of SGDF makes quantitative studies possible, and also provides scientific basis for keeping construction away from fault traces.

Hexi Corridor is located at the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau. Series of late Quaternary active faults are developed in this area. Numerous strong earthquakes occurred in history and nowadays. Jinta Nanshan fault is one of the boundary faults between the Qinghai-Tibet block and the Alxa block. The fault starts from the northwest of Wutongdun in the west, passes through Changshan, Yuanyangchi reservoir, Dakouzi, and ends in the east of Hongdun.
Because the Jinta Nanshan fault is a new active fault in this region, it is important to ascertain its paleoearthquakes since late Pleistocene for the earthquake risk study. Previous studies were carried out on the western part, such as field geomorphic investigation and trench excavation, which shows strong activity in Holocene on the western segment of Jinta Nanshan fault. On the basis of the above research, in this paper, we carried out satellite image interpretation, detailed investigation of faulted landforms and differential GPS survey for the whole fault. Focusing on the middle-eastern part, we studied paleoearthquakes through trench exploration on the Holocene alluvial fan and optical luminescence dating.
The main results are as follows:Early Pleistocene to late Pleistocene alluvial strata are widely developed along the fault and Holocene sediment is only about tens of centimeters thick. The Jinta Nanshan fault shows long-lasting activity since late Quaternary and reveals tens of centimeters of the lowest scarp which illustrates new strong activity on the middle-east segment of this fault. Since late Pleistocene, 4 paleoearthquakes happened respectively before(15.16±1.29) ka, before(9.9±0.5) ka, about 6ka and after(3.5±0.4) ka, revealed by 4 trenches, of which 2 are laid on relatively thicker Holocene alluvial fan. Two events occurred since middle Holocene, and both ruptured the whole fault.

A series of NWW striking faults are obliquely intersected by the NEE striking Altyn Tagh fault zone in the western Qilian Mountains. These faults were mostly active in late Quaternary and play an important role in accommodating regional lateral extrusion by both reverse and sinistral slip. Detailed studies on late Quaternary activity, tectonic transformation, paleoseismology, and strain partitioning not only significantly affect our recognition on seismogenic mechanism and zones of potential large earthquakes, but also provide useful information for exploring tectonic deformation mechanism in the northern Tibetan plateau. The Danghenanshan Fault, Yemahe-Daxueshan fault, and Altyn Tagh Fault form a triplet junction point at southwest of Subei county. The Yemahe-Daxueshan fault is one important branch fault in the western Qilian Mountains that accommodated eastward decreasing slip of the Altyn Tagh Fault, which was active in late Holocene, with a length up to 170km. Based on geometry and late Quaternary activity, the Yemahe-Daxueshan fault was subdivided into 3 segments, i.e. the Subei fault, Yemahe fault and Daxueshan Fault. The Yemahe Fault has the most prominent appearance among them, and is dominated by left-lateral slip with a little normal component. The heights of fresh scarps on this fault are only several tens of centimeters. We dug 2 trenches at the Zhazhihu site, and cleaned and reinterpreted one trench of previous studies. Then we interpreted trench profiles and paleoseismic events, and collected ¹⁴C and Optical Stimulated Luminescence samples to constrain event ages. Finally, we determined 3 events on the Yemahe fault with ages(6 830±30) a BP-(6 280±40) a BP, (5 220±30) a BP, (2 010±30) a BP, respectively. The elapsed time of most recent earthquake is(2 010±30) years before present, which is very close to the recurrence interval, so the possibility of major earthquakes on the Yemahe fault is relatively large.

Qilian Shan-Hexi Corridor is located in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau, which hosts many active strike-slip and thrust faults as well as folds. Previous study on this area was mostly concerned with large faults at the boundary of the corridor, while rare work on active tectonics in the interior of the corridor. On 25 October 2003, the Minle-Shandan M_S6.1 earthquake occurred in this area, which is related with the Minle-Yongchang fault hidden beneath the south piedmont of the Dahuangshan Mountains. As there is no obvious rupture trace on the surface, the quantitative study of this fault has never been reported so far.
In order to obtain quantitative parameters of this active structure efficiently, the software of ERDAS was used to generate pointscloud data from SPOT6 stereo-pair. Two-meter resolution DEM imagery from point cloud has the line accuracy of height about 1m. Three swath profiles were extracted from the DEM data, which show that high geomorphic surfaces are all uplifted and folded. By differential GPS measurement, the vertical uplift of the thrust-related fold is estimated to be about 2.0m on the T₂, and the strike of the fold deformation is nearly 311°, which is close to the result of the fault parameter determined by aftershocks, and also in agreement with the focal mechanism solutions. Furthermore, the location of fold axial zone is consistent with the actual investigation data. These indicate that there is obvious tectonic deformation in the west part of the Minle-Yongchang fault. It supports the view that this fault is the seismogenic structure of the 2003 Minle-Shandan earthquake. Stereo-pair is of high importance in active tectonics research, which can provide significant guidance for field geologic investigations and determining the location of tectonic deformation, according to this research.

Three-dimensional scanning with LiDAR has been widely used in geological surveys. The LiDAR with high accuracy is promoting geoscience quantification. And it will be much more convenient, efficient and useful when combining it with the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This study focuses on UAV-based Laser Scanning (UAVLS)geological field mapping, taking two examples to present advantages of the UAVLS in contrast with other mapping methods. For its usage in active fault mapping, we scanned the Nanpo village site on the Zhangxian segment of the West Qinling north-edge fault. It effectively removed the effects of buildings and vegetation, and uncovered the fault trace. We measured vertical offset of 1.3m on the terrace T₁ at the Zhang river. Moreover, we also scanned landslide features at the geological hazard observatory of Lanzhou University in the loess area. The scanning data can help understand how micro-topography affects activation of loess landslides. The UAVLS is time saving in the field, only spending about half an hour to scan each site. The amount of average points per meter is about 600, which can offer topography data with resolution of centimeter. The results of this study show that the UAVLS is expected to become a common, efficient and economic mapping tool.

The fault along the southern margin of the Wuwei Basin, located in the eastern Hexi Corridor, NW China, plays an important role in the thrust fault system in the northern Qilian Mountains. The activities of this fault resulted in the generation of the Gulang earthquake(M_S8.0) in 1927. Based on remote sensing image interpretation, geological and geomorphic observations in the field and ¹⁴C geochronological dating results, we conducted a detailed research on the geometry and kinematics of the fault. According to the discontinuous geometric distribution and variable strike directions, we divide this fault into 5 segments: Kangningqiao Fault(F₁), Nanyinghe Fault(F₂), Shangguchengcun-Zhangliugou Fault(F₃), Tajiazhuang Fault(F₄)and Yanjiazhuang Fault(F₅). Results indicate that this fault, with a total of 60km long trace at the surface, has been active since the late Pleistocene. It behaves predominantly as a thrust fault and is accompanied with a locally sinistral strike-slip component along the Nanyinghe Fault(F₂). Intensive activities of this fault in Holocene have caused extensive occurrence of dislocated landforms along its strike. Some measured displacements of the dislocated geologic or geomorphic units, combined with the ¹⁴C dating results, yield a vertical slip rate of (0.44±0.08)mm/a on this fault in Holocene, and a sinistral strike-slip rate of (1.43±0.08)mm/a on the Nanyinhhe Fault (F₂) in late Pleistocene.

An M_L4.7 earthquake occurred on February 2,2012 in Liaoning Gaizhou (40.56°N,122.36°E),since then,small earthquakes are frequent in this area,and until now the seismic activity does not stop,several earthquakes with magnitude larger than 4.0 have occurred.As of October 30,2014,1223 earthquakes have happened in the Gaizhou area,including 934 earthquakes with the magnitude M_L1.0~1.9,247 with the magnitude M_L2.0~2.9 and 45 with the magnitude M_L3.0~3.9.Meanwhile,earthquakes are continuously active in Haicheng area where the M_S7.3 earthquake happened in 1975,and there are over 1100 earthquakes (M_L ≥ 1.0) having occurred since the Gaizhou earthquake swarm activity.Because the polarization direction of the fast shear wave is very sensitive to the variation of the principal stress environment,the shear wave splitting parameter can reflect the regional stress state and the local structural features,especially effective for the analysis of small-scale stress environment characteristics.So based on the seismic activities of the two earthquake clusters,this study analyzes the characteristics of shear-wave splitting in Gaizhou-Haicheng area.Preliminary results show that predominant polarization direction of fast shear-waves in the old earthquake region of Haicheng is stable,consistent with the direction of regional stress field.Due to presence of active fault below the Gaixian station (GAX),the predominant polarization direction of fast shear-waves is more complicated.There are two predominant polarizations,consistent respectively with Jinzhou Fault strike which is below the station and the maximum principal stress direction in this area.In addition,Gaizhou earthquake swarm activity increased after December 22,2013,and after the time node,the predominant polarization direction of fast shear-waves in Gaixian station is SEE,which is close to the predominant polarization direction of fast shear-waves in Yingkou station,at the same time consistent with the maximum principal stress direction of this region.Thus it can be inferred,the enhanced activity of Gaizhou earthquake swarm since December 22,2014 may be related to local enhancement of regional stress.In addition,the average time-delays of slow waves in station YKO and GAX show that there are no obvious changes before and after the time point of December 22,2013,which is different greatly with the previous related researches on the variation of slow wave time-delays,and there is no possibility that the Gaizhou earthquake swarm evolved into foreshock sequences from current preliminary results.We should do more work to study the details of the time delay variation of shear wave splitting parameter.

Jinta Nanshan Fault is an important fault in northeast front of Qing-Zang Plateau, and it is crucial for determining the eastern end of Altyn Tagh Fault. However, there is still debate on its significant strike-slip movement.
In this paper, we study the Late Quaternary activity of Jinta Nanshan Fault and its geological and geomorphic expressions by interpreting aerial photographs and high-resolution remote sensing images, surveying and mapping of geological and geomorphic appearances, digging and clarifying fault profiles and mapping deformation characteristics of micro-topographies, then we analyze whether strike-slip activity exists on Jinta Nanshan Fault.
We get a more complete fault geometry than previous studies from most recent remote sensing images. Active fault traces of Jinta Nanshan mainly include 2 nearly parallel, striking 100°~90° fault scarps, and can be divided into 3 segments. West segment and middle segment form a left stepover with 2~2.5km width, and another stepover with 1.2km width separates the middle and east segment.
We summarize geomorphic and geologic evidence relating to strike slip activity of Jinta Nanshan Fault. Geomorphic expressions are as follows:First, fault scarps with alternating facing directions; second, sinistral offset of stream channels and micro-topographies; third, pull-apart basins and compressive-ridges at discontinuous part of Jinta Nanshan Fault. Geologic expressions are as follows:First, fault plane characteristics, including extremely high fault plane angle, unstable dip directions and coexistence of normal fault and reverse fault; second, flower structures.
Strike-slip rate was estimated by using geomorphic surface age of Zheng et al.(2013)and left-lateral offset with differential GPS measurements of the same geomorphic surface at field site in Fig. 4e. We calculated a strike-slip rate of (0.19±0.05)mm/a, which is slightly larger than or almost the same with vertical slip rate of (0.11±0.03)mm/a from Zheng et al.(2013).
When we confirm the strike-slip activity of Jinta Nanshan, we discuss its potential dynamic sources:First, eastern extension of Altyn Tagh Fault and second, strain partitioning of northeastward extension of Qilian Shan thrust belt. The first one is explainable when it came to geometric pattern of several E-W striking fault and eastward decreasing strike slip rate, but the former cannot explain why the Heishan Fault, which locates between the the Altyn Tagh Fault and Jinta Nanshan Fault, is a pure high angle reverse fault. The latter seems more explainable, because oblique vectors may indeed partition onto a fault and manifest strike-slip activity.

The Qujiang Fault is one of the most seismically active faults in western Yunnan, China and is considered to be the seismogenic fault of the 1970 M_S7.7 Tonghai earthquake. The Qujiang Fault is located at the southeastern tip of the Sichuan-Yunnan block. In this study, we examine the geometry, kinematics, and geomorphology of this fault through field observations and satellite images. The fault is characterized by dextral strike-slip movements with dip-slip components and can be divided into northwest and southeast segments according to different kinematics. The northwest segment shows right-lateral strike-slip with normal components, whereas it is characterized by dextral movements with the northeast wall thrusting over the opposite in the southeast segment. The offset landforms are well developed along the strike of the fault with displacements ranging from 3.7m to 830m. The Late Quaternary right-lateral slip rate was determined to be 2.3～4.0mm/a through dating and measuring on the offset features. The variation of the slip and uplift rates along the fault strike corresponds well to the fault kinematics segmentation: the slip rate on the northwest segment is above 3mm/a with an uplift rate of 0.6～0.8mm/a; however, influenced by the Xiaojiang Fault, the southeast segment shows apparent thrust components. The slip rate decreases to below 3.0mm/a with an uplift rate of 1.1mm/a, indicating different uplift between the northwest and southeast segments.

The southern Wudu M8.0 great earthquake occurred in 1879,many places in Wudu and adjacent areas had suffered destruction in various degrees. So far,the research results on the causative structure of this earthquake are less and inconsistent. Because it occurred in lofty mountains and the traffic is inconvenient,it is hard to make detailed field study on the earthquake site. Based on the assumption that clustered small earthquakes often occur in the vicinity of fault plane of large earthquake,and referring to the morphology of the major axis of the meizoseismal area obtained by the predecessors,we selected a strip-shaped zone from the relocated earthquake catalog which occurred near the earthquake rupture zone in the period from 1985 to 2009 to calculate fault plane parameters of the earthquake,such as strike and dip,with the simulated annealing and Gauss-Newtonian nonlinear inversion algorithms. On this condition,the rake angles of the fault plane are further inferred from regional tectonic stress parameters. We discussed the causal mechanism of the earthquake and finally identified the length and location of the seismogenic fault. In addition,clustered small earthquakes occurred frequently in the Xionghuangshan area west of the mezoseismal area,but we didn't find clear fault planes in field investigation,so,they should not have relation with the 1879 M8 southern Wudu earthquake.

Hetai gold-bearing ductile shear zone is a frontal steep-dip shear zone of Gunagning deep-level nappe structure in Western Guangdong,and is also a composite shear zone formed by thethrust shearing and subsequent dextral strike-slipping of Hetai shear zone. The characteristics ofdeformation and the microstructures of mylonites are also studied.In addition,the differentialstress and the strain rate of the deformation are estimated through study of the mylonites underpolarizing microscope and TEM.

The mechanical properties of fault gouge of Honghe fault zone were studied at temperatures up to 600℃, confining pressures up to 700 MPa and strain rate of 4.4×10^-5/s, At room temperature and high pressure the stress-strain curves of gouge were characterized by linear and non-linear stages of deformation, at high temperature and pressure the non-linear deformation was presented in the curves. The failure strength of gouge increased with increasing confining pressure at the same temperature, and de creased with increasing temperature at the same confining pressure. As the content of calcite in gouge was more than 20 %, the failure strength at high temperature decreased with increasing confining pressure, this anomalous change in mechanical behavior of gouge may be related to the plastic deformation and solid-gas transition induced by calcite and to the decreasing effective pressure caused by increasing pore fluid pressure. The a-coustic emission activity occurred in the gouge specimen during deformation, but no stress drop was observed in the stress-strain curve. After the differential stress reached the failure strength, the gouge specimen underwent a gradual failure process. The initial and effective elastic modules were determined from the stress-strain curves of gouges, the former were smaller than the latter. The gouge was lithified at T≥400℃ and σ₃≥300 MPa confining pressure, according to the lithifying conditions of temperature and pressure, the existing depth of clayey gouge does not exceed 10-15 km, Because the failure of gouges took a gradual character, it is favorable for the active fault with gouge to slide stably.

The characteristics of three typical models of rockmass have been studied under room temperature and confining pressure.The results suggest that the stress-strain curves can be divided,into four stages by the behaviours of linear and nonlinear elasticity.The deformation mechanisms are correspondent to the closing of preexisting cracks,elastic deformatiom of grains and pores,macroscope tension (tensile region),shear (compressive region) and main shearing or shearing-tension ruptures,respectively.The resulting processes of these curves stages in longitudinal and transverse direction near the tip of sawcut and in the region of homogeneous stress state were different in time.The fracture propogation related to the change of stress-strain stage was not considered in time and space.The characteristics of stress-strain curves and distributions and sequences of fracture propagation were controlled by structure features of models of sawcut rockmass.Finally the relationship between the developing stages of stress-strain in some points along the seismogenic fault and the preparation of earthquakes,has been discussed.

According the viewpoint of the earthquake caused by the faulting,the failure of such saw-cut rock specimens as granodiorite,gabbro and mable was studied under room temperature and confining pressure,σ₂=σ₃= 0.6—1.2kb.During the increase of differential stress,shear strains and fractures started to occur at soft material filling tne saw-cut rock,then the tension crack appeared at the tip of the saw-cut and finally the main rupture,shear/tensile rupture occurred at the same tip nearly parallal to the sawcut strike.Extending tensional cracks were restricted by confining pressure.The distribution of cracks and mechanisms of main ruptrue were influenced by making of the sawcut and properties of rocks.Significance of these results was discussed in the preparation and prediction of the earthquake.

From the features of fracture and acoustic emission and the stress-strain behavior this paper indicates that the activity of a fault zone depends on the angle of the fault plane with soft sandwich and the axis of principal compressive stress. Our experiments provide evidence that as this angle is larger than 45℃, the process of fracture has three stages, and before main shock there occurred a number of foreshocks and took place apparent dislocation within the fault zone and its surroundings. On the other hand, as the angle is smaller than 45? these phenomena then would be disappeared.

In this paper considering different viewpoints of seismogenic structures of Tangshan earthquake, the seismogenic mode of Tangshan earthquake has been studied using the finite element method. The characteristics of Tangshan earthquake are also described,A preliminary discussion has been made on identifying the earthquake risk areas on the basis of both regional stress direction and condition of stress release.

Combining the physical and mathematical simulations the strain field and its evolution near locked region are studied. The characteristics of pre-seismic strain fields and displacement fields around the bodies of seismic source with different shapes were discussed, and the strain changes before, just before, during and after earthquakes were also analyzed. Taking notice of the difference around an epicenter from its surrounding permits us preliminarily to explain the strain process of each point relevant to the tectonic conditions, fracturing process and its position in the stress field.