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Active tectonics in southern Xinjiang, China: Analysis of terrace riser and normal fault scarp degradation along the Hotan-Qira fault systemThe northern piedmont of the western Kunlun mountains (Xinjiang, China) is marked at its easternmost extremity, south of the Hotan-Qira oases, by a set of normal faults trending N50E for nearly 70 km. Conspicuous on Landsat and SPOT images, these faults follow the southeastern border of a deep flexural basin and may be related to the subsidence of the Tarim platform loaded by the western Kunlun northward overthrust. The Hotan-Qira normal fault system vertically offsets the piedmont slope by 70 m. Highest fault scarps reach 20 m and often display evidence for recent reactivations about 2 m high. Successive stream entrenchments in uplifted footwallls have formed inset terraces. We have leveled topographic profiles across fault scarps and transverse abandoned terrace risers. The state of degradation of each terrace edge has been characterized by a degradation coefficient tau, derived by comparison with analytical erosion models. Edges of highest abandoned terraces yield a degradation coefficient of 33 +/- 4 sq.m. Profiles of cumulative fault scarps have been analyzed in a similar way using synthetic profiles generated with a simple incremental fault scarp model.
Document ID
19950046128
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Avouac, Jean-Philippe
(Inst. de Physique du globe de Paris Paris, France)
Peltzer, Gilles
(Jet Propulsion Lab. California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 16, 2013
Publication Date
December 10, 1993
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 98
Issue: B12
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Geophysics
Accession Number
95A77727
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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