Late Quaternary slip rate of the Aksay segment and its fast decreasing gradient along the Altyn Tagh fault

Constraining the fault slip rate could reveal the strain accumulation and
partitioning pattern. The Aksay segment, the eastern segment of the ATF
(Altyn Tagh Fault), as the starting area where the slip rate of ATF
decreases, is a strain partitioning zone. The spatial and temporal
distribution of fault slip rate along the Aksay segment is of great
significance to clarify the role of it in the strain-partitioning of the
eastern ATF. We determined the slip rate of four sites along the Aksay
segment respectively. The results demonstrated that the slip rate
decreased dramatically with an overwhelmingly high slip gradient of ~9.8
mm/yr/100 km within a distance of ~50 km. The slip rate gradient at the
Aksay segment is ~4 times of that of the Subei segment to the eastward
termination of the ATF. We proposed that the decreased slip rate was
absorbed principally by the uplifting of the Danghe Nan Shan. Our results
indicated that the slip rate gradient along the ATF was not uniform, and
decreased eastward with variable slip rate gradients at different
segments, resulting in the uplifting of the mountains oblique with the
ATF.