Earthquake Surface Rupture Features and Tectonic Significance of the Tazang Fault in the Eastern Part of the East Kunlun Fault Zone

The East Kunlun fault zone is located in the northern margin of the Bayan Har block. The study of earthquake rupture behavior in the fault zone is of importance for understanding the future seismic risk in northwest Sichuan. A number of geological field investigations, typical micro topography DGPS measurements and sample dating show that the earthquake activity of the East Kunlun fault zone extends to the north boundary of Zoige basin, a segment known as the Luocha segment of Tazang fault. In the satellite image, the segment is seen clearly as gray and yellow strips. The earthquake deformation zone mainly features fault scarp, valleys on the slope, offset gullies and terraces, linear distribution of plants, waterfall, fault spring, fault sag pond, and landslide, collapse and talus associated with surface rupturing. These phenomena are distributed intermittently along the re-existing fault and form a ～50km-long inverse L-shaped deformation zone. Fault activities caused left-lateral offset of gullies and terraces, with horizontal displacement concentrated at 5.5m~6m, 18m～23m, 68m～75m, and 200m～220m, respectively. The recent earthquake occurred between 340±30～500±30BP. The macro epicenter is located 5km～7km northwest of Benduo village, with magnitude of MW7.3～7.4, maximum coseismic displacement of 6m, horizontal displacement 5.5m～6m and vertical displacement 0.2m～0.5m, being in a proportion of 5∶1～10∶1. These phenomena show that the Tazang fault is the causative fault of this earthquake. The fault is a Holocene active fault and was dominated recently by left-lateral movement with a small amount of thrust component under compressive shear stress. This characteristic is similar to the movement in other segments of the East Kunlun fault zone. The results of this study support the continental escape model.