Present-Day Crustal Deformation Within the Western Qinling Mountains and Its Kinematic Implications
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Present‑Day Crustal Deformation Within the Western Qinling Mountains and Its Kinematic Implications Ming Hao1,2 · Yuhang Li1 · Qingliang Wang1 · Wenquan Zhuang1 · Wei Qu3 Received: 26 May 2020 / Accepted: 21 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The western Qinling Mountains, located between the East Kunlun fault and the West Qinling fault, hold the key to investigating the outward expansion of the Tibetan Plateau. We use up-to-date GPS observations to derive high spatial–temporal resolution crustal velocity and strain rate fields for this region. Our results suggest that a series of NEE-trending faults bounding the eastern margin of the western Qinling Mountains experience right-lateral strike slip with low rates of ~ 1 mm/yr. In addition, our results suggest that crustal deformation of the western Qinling Mountains could be governed by a right-lateral shear zone trending NNE at a rate of ~ 6 mm/yr, producing a clockwise rotation of subblocks: leftlateral and right-lateral strike slip on the NWW-trending and NEE-trending faults, respectively. The eastward extrusion of the Tibetan Plateau along the western Qinling Mountains is limited further east. In contrast, the NNE-ward expansion of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau is the primary motion which extends through the western Qinling Mountains and the Longxi block. The results of this study improve our understanding of the outward expansion of the Tibetan Plateau influenced by the Indian–Eurasian collision. Keywords Western Qinling Mountains · Eastward expansion · Crustal movement · Block model · Right-lateral shear zone
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1071 2-020-09621-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Ming Hao [email protected] 1
The Second Monitoring and Application Center, China Earthquake Administration, Xi’an 710054, China
2
Southern Laboratory of Ocean Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Zhuhai 519082, China
3
College of Geology Engineering and Geomatics, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710054, China
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Surveys in Geophysics
1 Article Highlights 1. High spatial–temporal resolution of crustal velocity and strain fields for western Qinling Mountains. 2. Crustal deformation of western Qinling Mountains could be governed by a right-lateral shear zone trending NNE. 3. NNE-ward expansion of Tibetan Plateau is the primary motion, while eastward extrusion is limited.
2 Introduction The northeastern Tibetan Plateau is a transition zone connecting the Tibetan Plateau and the North China–Pacific plate, and it is also the junction of tectonic structures striking EW and NS in mainland China (Tapponnier et al. 1982; Zhang et al. 1995, 2004; Mercier et al. 2013). Large-scale left-lateral strike-slip fault systems trending EW, such as the East Kunlun fault and the Haiyuan fault, indicate significant eastward extrusion of the Tibetan plateau. At the same time, development of several right-lateral strike-slip faultin
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