Karakorum Fault and its Geodynamics

Karakorum Fault is a major strike-slip fault lying in the central part of Asian Continent. Its northern part lies in Afghanistan, the central part is between Xinjiang and Kashmir, the southern part is in Tibet. It is obvious that the Karakorum Fault is an active fault. A series of stronger earthquakes occured along the northern part of the fault zone. The Karakorum Fault and Altun Tagh Fault are the two most prominent strike-slip faults in this region. The former is right lateral strike-slip fault, the later is left lateral strike-slip fault. Karakorum Fault creates a huge escaping tectonics in the eastern side of the Pamir Plateau. The rate of eastward tectonic escape is 5–10 mm/yr. Chaman Fault and Herat Fault also create a huge escaping tectonics in the western side of the Pamir Plateau. From the viewpoint of geodynamics, the Tibetan and Persian Plateaus are symmetrical to the Pamir collision comer and their eastward and westward tectonic escape rate are about 5–10 mm/yr respectively. In addition, there are a lot of intermediate earthquakes occurred in the West Kunlun and Karakorum Mountains. An intermediate earthquake of M_b=6.0 occurred at Yecheng in February, 1980 in the Tarim Basin. It made the seismic intensity of VII in the surface about 90 km north of the microscopic epicenter. This suggests that the southwest block of the Tarim Basin subduct southward beneath the West Kunlun and Karakorum Mountains.