Collaborative Research: Magnitude of Slip, Slip Rate, and Slip Distribution Along the Cenozoic Altyn Tagh Fault System

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9725663 Butler The Altyn Tagh fault in northern Tibet has unique characteristics that make establishing its kinematic history pivotal to understanding the evolution of the Indo-Asian collision. This feature, arguably the largest active intracontinental strike-slip fault system on Earth, is a focal point in both end-member models that have been proposed to describe the mechanical behavior of continental deformation: distributed shortening and lateral extrusion. This project involves a four year, integrated geological, geochronological and geophysical investigation that will focus on the determination of the magnitude, rate, and distribution of slip on the Altyn Tagh fault at time scales between 10,000,000 years to 4 years. The principal investigators will utilize geologic mapping and geochronology to establish piercing points, use paleomagnetic analysis to investigate several possible oroclinal folds along the fault, undertake a GPS survey to establish the slip rate, slip distribution and locking depth along the fault zone, and use mapping and cosmogenic dating of geomorphological features to establish Quaternary slip rates. ***