Displacement and timing along the northern strand of the Altyn Tagh fault zone, Northern Tibet

The northern strand of the Altyn Tagh fault has a late Cenozoic left-slip offset of 69–90 km near its northeastern end. Deformation began in this area as early as the Oligocene but left-slip displacement may be mainly of Middle Miocene to Recent age. Because the Altyn Tagh fault zone transfers strike-slip displacement into shortening in the Qilian Shan, the total offset changes along the fault, but the magnitude of displacement along this part of the fault zone suggests that only small-scale eastward movement of crustal rocks occurred in this part of the Tibetan plateau during the late Cenozoic.