LATE-QUATERNARY GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF JIANQUANZI-BARKOL SINISTRAL FAULT SYSTEM IN EASTERNMOST TIENSHAN

As we all know, Eastern Tienshan and Altaid in central Asia accommodate~10mm/a crustal shortening, accounting for 1/4 shortening between India and Eurasia(~40mm/a). A substantial portion of these deformations was absorbed in Altaid in the north through a combination of right-lateral strike-slip and counterclockwise vertical axis rotation of crustal blocks, but how the crustal deformation was accommodated in Eastern Tienshan is still in debate. Based on the field investigation in Jianquanzi, Barkol Tagh and Karlik Tagh in Eastern Tienshan in recent years, we identified a sinistral strike-slip fault system mapped in Eastern Tienshan. From west to east, the Jianquanzi-Tuolaiquan Fault(JTF), South Barkol Basin Fault (SBF) and Central Karliktagh Fault(CKF)constitute the tectonic frame of this large-scale fault system, which plays an important role in adjusting the strain distribution during the process of orogening in Eastern Tienshan in Quaternary even since Ceonozoic era. The fault system displays different late-Quaternary characteristics when its orientation changes with regional tectonic principal stress(NE). Specifically, the EW-trending JTF exhibits sinistral slip with little vertical component which can extend to Xiongkuer segment on EW-NW-trending SBF. The EW-NW SBF displays sinistral slip from east of Luobaoquanto, Barkol County and reverse slip with little horizontal component at east of Barkol County. In easternmost, the WNW-EW trending CKF shows sinistral slip with no obvious vertical motion. This fault system's activity coupled in the orogenic process of easternmost Tienshan, adjusting and accommodating a portion of deformation included in the orogenic process, and in turn we suggest that the deformation associated with range front fault in the orogen root may not be the only decisive way of deformation releasing.