A Paleoseismic Record Spanning 2-Myr Reveals Episodic Late Pliocene Deformation in the Western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet

Yin Lu; Shmuel Marco; Nadav Wetzler; Xiaomin Fang; G. Ian Alsop; Aurélia Hubert-Ferrari

doi:10.1029/2020gl090530

A Paleoseismic Record Spanning 2-Myr Reveals Episodic Late Pliocene Deformation in the Western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet

Yin Lu^* (Corresponding Author), Shmuel Marco, Nadav Wetzler, Xiaomin Fang, G. Ian Alsop, Aurélia Hubert-Ferrari

^*Corresponding author for this work

Geology and Geophysics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet contains numerous NW-SE-trending thrusts that extend over a distance of ?300 km along the Altyn Tagh Fault and north of the Kunlun Range. However, little is known about the long-term seismo-tectonic evolution of this active thrust zone due to the absence of an extended paleoseismic record. We present a 2-Myr-long disturbance record established from a core drilled on the crest of a thrust-cored anticline. Based on detailed sedimentological analysis, the disturbances (micro-faults, soft-sediment deformation, slumps, and detachment surfaces) are interpreted as paleoearthquake/tectonic indicators. The core records five seismite clusters which occurred at 3.6-3.5, 3.4-3.2, 3.15-3.1, 3.0-2.9, and 2.8-2.75 Ma. This suggests the rate of tectonic strain accommodated by the folds and thrusts in the region varies and thus reveals episodic local deformation. During the clusters, regional deformation is concentrated more in the fold-and-thrust system than along regional major strike-slip faults.

Original language	English
Article number	e2020GL090530
Number of pages	12
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	48
Issue number	5
Early online date	8 Mar 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl090530
Publication status	Published - 16 Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
This research was inspired by Prof. Lin Ding's comments on the doctoral thesis proposal of Yin Lu in May 2014 at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, China. We thank Profs. Todd Ehlers, Erwin Appel, and Oliver Friedrich for fruitful discussions in the early stage of this research. We appreciate the editor Germán Prieto for handling our manuscript, Jérôme Nomade and one anonymous reviewer for constructive reviews. We thank Werner Fielitz for comments, A. Koutsodendris, K. S. Nakajima, and H. Campos for help with lab work, and W. Rösler and H. Schulz for help with core sampling. Financial support was provided by the German Research Foundation (# FR2544/13-1 to O. Friedrich) and the University of Liege under Special Funds for Research, IPD-STEMA Program (R.DIVE.0899-JF-G to Y. Lu).

Keywords

paleoseismology
regional deformation
seismites
seismo-tectonic evolution
slump
soft-sediment deformation
Geophysics
General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Access to Document

10.1029/2020gl090530Licence: CC BY

Lu_et_al_GRL_APaleoseismicRecordSpanning_VoR
© 2021. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 2.96 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{76028e3a33b3432fa8fc8635b1c5d14a,

title = "A Paleoseismic Record Spanning 2-Myr Reveals Episodic Late Pliocene Deformation in the Western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet",

abstract = "The western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet contains numerous NW-SE-trending thrusts that extend over a distance of ?300 km along the Altyn Tagh Fault and north of the Kunlun Range. However, little is known about the long-term seismo-tectonic evolution of this active thrust zone due to the absence of an extended paleoseismic record. We present a 2-Myr-long disturbance record established from a core drilled on the crest of a thrust-cored anticline. Based on detailed sedimentological analysis, the disturbances (micro-faults, soft-sediment deformation, slumps, and detachment surfaces) are interpreted as paleoearthquake/tectonic indicators. The core records five seismite clusters which occurred at 3.6-3.5, 3.4-3.2, 3.15-3.1, 3.0-2.9, and 2.8-2.75 Ma. This suggests the rate of tectonic strain accommodated by the folds and thrusts in the region varies and thus reveals episodic local deformation. During the clusters, regional deformation is concentrated more in the fold-and-thrust system than along regional major strike-slip faults.",

keywords = "paleoseismology, regional deformation, seismites, seismo-tectonic evolution, slump, soft-sediment deformation, Geophysics, General Earth and Planetary Sciences",

author = "Yin Lu and Shmuel Marco and Nadav Wetzler and Xiaomin Fang and Alsop, {G. Ian} and Aur{\'e}lia Hubert-Ferrari",

note = "Acknowledgments This research was inspired by Prof. Lin Ding's comments on the doctoral thesis proposal of Yin Lu in May 2014 at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, China. We thank Profs. Todd Ehlers, Erwin Appel, and Oliver Friedrich for fruitful discussions in the early stage of this research. We appreciate the editor Germ{\'a}n Prieto for handling our manuscript, J{\'e}r{\^o}me Nomade and one anonymous reviewer for constructive reviews. We thank Werner Fielitz for comments, A. Koutsodendris, K. S. Nakajima, and H. Campos for help with lab work, and W. R{\"o}sler and H. Schulz for help with core sampling. Financial support was provided by the German Research Foundation (# FR2544/13-1 to O. Friedrich) and the University of Liege under Special Funds for Research, IPD-STEMA Program (R.DIVE.0899-JF-G to Y. Lu).",

year = "2021",

month = mar,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1029/2020gl090530",

language = "English",

volume = "48",

journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

issn = "0094-8276",

publisher = "Wiley",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A Paleoseismic Record Spanning 2-Myr Reveals Episodic Late Pliocene Deformation in the Western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet

AU - Lu, Yin

AU - Marco, Shmuel

AU - Wetzler, Nadav

AU - Fang, Xiaomin

AU - Alsop, G. Ian

AU - Hubert-Ferrari, Aurélia

N1 - Acknowledgments This research was inspired by Prof. Lin Ding's comments on the doctoral thesis proposal of Yin Lu in May 2014 at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, China. We thank Profs. Todd Ehlers, Erwin Appel, and Oliver Friedrich for fruitful discussions in the early stage of this research. We appreciate the editor Germán Prieto for handling our manuscript, Jérôme Nomade and one anonymous reviewer for constructive reviews. We thank Werner Fielitz for comments, A. Koutsodendris, K. S. Nakajima, and H. Campos for help with lab work, and W. Rösler and H. Schulz for help with core sampling. Financial support was provided by the German Research Foundation (# FR2544/13-1 to O. Friedrich) and the University of Liege under Special Funds for Research, IPD-STEMA Program (R.DIVE.0899-JF-G to Y. Lu).

PY - 2021/3/16

Y1 - 2021/3/16

N2 - The western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet contains numerous NW-SE-trending thrusts that extend over a distance of ?300 km along the Altyn Tagh Fault and north of the Kunlun Range. However, little is known about the long-term seismo-tectonic evolution of this active thrust zone due to the absence of an extended paleoseismic record. We present a 2-Myr-long disturbance record established from a core drilled on the crest of a thrust-cored anticline. Based on detailed sedimentological analysis, the disturbances (micro-faults, soft-sediment deformation, slumps, and detachment surfaces) are interpreted as paleoearthquake/tectonic indicators. The core records five seismite clusters which occurred at 3.6-3.5, 3.4-3.2, 3.15-3.1, 3.0-2.9, and 2.8-2.75 Ma. This suggests the rate of tectonic strain accommodated by the folds and thrusts in the region varies and thus reveals episodic local deformation. During the clusters, regional deformation is concentrated more in the fold-and-thrust system than along regional major strike-slip faults.

AB - The western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet contains numerous NW-SE-trending thrusts that extend over a distance of ?300 km along the Altyn Tagh Fault and north of the Kunlun Range. However, little is known about the long-term seismo-tectonic evolution of this active thrust zone due to the absence of an extended paleoseismic record. We present a 2-Myr-long disturbance record established from a core drilled on the crest of a thrust-cored anticline. Based on detailed sedimentological analysis, the disturbances (micro-faults, soft-sediment deformation, slumps, and detachment surfaces) are interpreted as paleoearthquake/tectonic indicators. The core records five seismite clusters which occurred at 3.6-3.5, 3.4-3.2, 3.15-3.1, 3.0-2.9, and 2.8-2.75 Ma. This suggests the rate of tectonic strain accommodated by the folds and thrusts in the region varies and thus reveals episodic local deformation. During the clusters, regional deformation is concentrated more in the fold-and-thrust system than along regional major strike-slip faults.

KW - paleoseismology

KW - regional deformation

KW - seismites

KW - seismo-tectonic evolution

KW - slump

KW - soft-sediment deformation

KW - Geophysics

KW - General Earth and Planetary Sciences

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102500732&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1029/2020gl090530

DO - 10.1029/2020gl090530

M3 - Article

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 48

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 5

M1 - e2020GL090530

ER -

A Paleoseismic Record Spanning 2-Myr Reveals Episodic Late Pliocene Deformation in the Western Qaidam Basin, NE Tibet

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this