Rapid slip along the central Altyn Tagh Fault: Morphochronologic evidence from Cherchen He and Sulamu Tagh

consistent with the d 18 O record from the Guliya ice cap in the West Kunlun; the features of interest were all formed by glacial and fluvial processes subsequent to marine isotope stage 5e, with the youngest features having formed during the early Holocene Optimum. This ‘‘near-field,’’ morphochronological slip rate is averaged over many earthquake cycles and is hence little affected by interseismic strain. It is kinematically consistent with other, somewhat lower, geomorphic slip rate measurements to the east. The average rate, and lower bounds obtained from alternate interpretational models, 18.4 mm/yr, cannot be reconciled with the most rece geodetic measurements (� 7 mm/yr), suggesting that interseismic strain and interactions with adjacent faults may lead to disparate geologic and geodetic rate estimates. This late Pleistocene-Holocene, morphochronologic rate would imply that, at this longitude, the Altyn Tagh Fault, on the north edge of Tibet, might absorb almost as much of India’s convergence relative to Siberia as the Himalayan Main Frontal Thrust does on the southern edge of the plateau. INDEX TERMS: 1035 Geochemistry: Geochronology; 1208 Geodesy and Gravity: Crustal movements—intraplate (8110); 8102 Tectonophysics: Continental contractional orogenic belts; 8107 Tectonophysics: Continental neotectonics; KEYWORDS: slip rates, cosmogenic dating, Indo-Asian collision

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