Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
Previous estimates of the geodetic and geologic slip rates of the 1500 km long Altyn Tagh fault bordering the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau vary by a factor of five. Proposed reasons for these discrepancies include poor GPS geometry, interpretative errors in terrace morphology, and changes in fault slip rate over time. Here we present results from a new dense GPS array orthogonal to the fault at ~86.2°E that indicates a velocity of 9.0−3.2/+4.4 mm/yr, in close agreement with geomorphologic estimates at the same location. Our estimated geodetic slip rate is consistent with recent geological slip rates based on terrace offsets. The resulting mean combined geological and geodetic slip rate (9.0 ± 4.0 mm/yr) is remarkably uniform for the central ~800 km of the Altyn Tagh fault, significantly lower than early kinematic estimates and consistent with deformation elsewhere in Tibet and central Asia.
ISSN: 0094-8276

hal-00963568
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00963568
DOI : 10.1002/2013GL057497

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We use 3-D mechanical modeling representing faults as planar surfaces with frictional properties that obey Coulomb-failure process to explore the long-term slip rates of the Altyn Tagh fault and Kunlun faults in the north Tibetan plateau. Crustal theology is simplified as an elastoplastic upper crust and a viscoelastic lower crust. Far-field GPS velocities and late Quaternary fault slip rates are used to constrain the model results. Rheological tests show that effective fault friction lower than 0.1-0.08 leads to high slip rates that fit with geologically and geodetically determined slip rates of the Kunlun fault (10-11.7 +/- 1.5 mm/yr). Meanwhile, the modeled Altyn Tagh fault reaches slip rates similar to 13.7 mm/yr to similar to 7.8 mm/yr in its central portion, between ranges of the geological slip rates. Associated with high slip rates, our model predicts that central Tibet (similar to 84 degrees E-95 degrees E) from the Altyn Tagh fault to the north of the Himalayan arc accommodates north-south shortening and east-west extension rates of similar to 10-12 mm/yr and similar to 8-10 mm/yr, respectively. We also question the widely accepted idea that interseismic strain is driven at the base of the seismogenic zone by a screw dislocation. If this assumption fails, the presented model implies that interseismic strain around large strike-slip faults could be distributed in a much broader way if the lithosphere deforms as a thin elastic plate rather than an elastic half-space with an embedded dislocation. If this distributed deformation is ignored, and the instantaneous surface deformation field modeled as that resulting from slip on a dislocation below a specified depth embedded in an elastic half-space, the estimated slip rate will inevitably be lower than the true long-term slip rate. This appears to explain why geodetic slip rates proposed for the Altyn Tagh fault (510 mm/yr) are lower than some of the geological slip rates. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00411926
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411926
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.06.049