Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 9 July 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5681, pp. 236 - 239
DOI: 10.1126/science.1096388
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

InSAR Observations of Low Slip Rates on the Major Faults of Western Tibet

Tim J. Wright,1* Barry Parsons,1 Philip C. England,1 Eric J. Fielding2

Two contrasting views of the active deformation of Asia dominate the debate about how continents deform: (i) The deformation is primarily localized on major faults separating crustal blocks or (ii) deformation is distributed throughout the continental lithosphere. In the first model, western Tibet is being extruded eastward between the major faults bounding the region. Surface displacement measurements across the western Tibetan plateau using satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) indicate that slip rates on the Karakoram and Altyn Tagh faults are lower than would be expected for the extrusion model and suggest a significant amount of internal deformation in Tibet.

1 COMET, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA, and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tim.wright{at}earth.ox.ac.uk

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Low Quaternary slip rate reconciles geodetic and geologic rates along the Altyn Tagh fault, northwestern Tibet.
E. Cowgill, R. D. Gold, C. Xuanhua, W. Xiao-Feng, J R. Arrowsmith, and J. Southon (2009)
Geology 37, 647-650
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Active structures of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen and their relationships to earthquake distribution, contemporary strain field, and Cenozoic volcanism.
M. Taylor and A. Yin (2009)
Geosphere 5, 199-214
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Present-day kinematics at the India-Asia collision zone.
B. J. Meade (2007)
Geology 35, 81-84
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Applications of morphochronology to the active tectonics of Tibet.
F. J. Ryerson, P. Tapponnier, R. C. Finkel, A.-S. Meriaux, J. Van der Woerd, C. Lasserre, M.-L. Chevalier, X.-w. Xu, H.-b. Li, and G. C.P. King (2006)
Geological Society of America Special Papers 415, 61-86
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Crustal stress and seismic activity in the Ionian archipelago as inferred by satellite- and ground-based observations, Kefallinia, Greece.
M. Poscolieri, E. Lagios, G. P. Gregori, G. Paparo, V. A. Sakkas, I. Parcharidis, I. Marson, K. Soukis, E. Vassilakis, F. Angelucci, et al. (2006)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 261, 63-78
   Abstract »    PDF »
Comment on "Slip-Rate Measurements on the Karakorum Fault May Imply Secular Variations in Fault Motion".
E. T. Brown, P. Molnar, and D. L. Bourles (2005)
Science 309, 1326b
   Full Text »    PDF »
Response to Comment on "Slip-Rate Measurements on the Karakorum Fault May Imply Secular Variations in Fault Motion".
M.-L. Chevalier, F. J. Ryerson, P. Tapponnier, R. C. Finkel, J. Van Der Woerd, L. Haibing, and L. Qing (2005)
Science 309, 1326c
   Full Text »    PDF »
Slip-Rate Measurements on the Karakorum Fault May Imply Secular Variations in Fault Motion.
M.-L. Chevalier, F. J. Ryerson, P. Tapponnier, R. C. Finkel, J. Van Der Woerd, L. Haibing, and L. Qing (2005)
Science 307, 411-414
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)