Late Pleistocene shortening rate on the northern margin of the Yanqi Basin, southeastern Tian Shan, NW China

• Active structures penetrated and deformed the intermontane basin across the Tian Shan.
• Quantifying slip rates of faults on the margins of intermontane basin, Tian Shan.
• Strong earthquake are controlled by active faults distributed across the Tian Shan.

How strain is distributed and partitioned on individual faults and folds on the margins of intermontane basins remains poorly understood. The Haermodun (Ha) anticline, located along the northern margin of the intermontane Yanqi Basin on the southeastern flank of the Tian Shan, preserves flights of passively deformed alluvial terraces. These terraces cross the active anticline and can be used to constrain local crustal shortening and uplift rates. Geologic and geomorphic mapping, in conjunction with high-resolution dGPS topographic surveys, reveal that the terrace surfaces are perpendicular to the fold’s strike, and display increased rotation with age, implying that the anticline has grown by progressive limb rotation. Combined with the open sinusoidal curve model and excess area method, we calculated uplift and shortening values for each terrace since abandonment. Using the published exposure ages of each terrace, we found the vertical uplift rate gradually decreased from ∼0.43 to ∼0.11 mm/a, whereas the shortening rate remained constant at ∼0.3 mm/a since the anticline began to grow. A fresh fault scarp, 0.4 ± 0.1 m high, is visible along the southern portion of the Ha anticline, and is interpreted to be the most recent evidence of seismic activity. Using an estimated rupture area and the length of the fresh offset created by this earthquake, we estimate that the main thrust underlying the Ha anticline has generated moderate (M < 7) earthquakes in the past. The shortening rates of the Ha anticline from geomorphology agree with current GPS measurements cover-over the fold, and highlight the importance of determining slip rates for individual faults in order to resolve patterns of strain distribution across intermontane belts.