Jianming Guo

Field investigations show that the surface wave magnitude (Ms) 8.1 Central Kunlun earthquake (Tibetan plateau) of 14 November 2001 produced a nearly 400-kilometer-long surface rupture zone, with as much as 16.3 meters of left-lateral strike-slip along the active Kunlun fault in northern Tibet. The rupture length and maximum displacement are the largest among the co-seismic surface rupture zones reported on so far. The strike-slip motion and the large rupture length generated by the earthquake indicate that the Kunlun fault partitions its deformation into an eastward extrusion of Tibet to accommodate the continuing penetration of the Indian plate into the Eurasian plate.

We use field investigations, topographic profiles, and 10 Be exposure dating to constrain the growth rate of the Yumu Shan, a thrust‐bounded mountain range at the northeastern margin of Tibet. Wind gaps, fault scarps at the mountain front, and hanging paleocatchments indicate that the Yumu Shan is growing both laterally and vertically. Scarp profiles and 10 Be ages yield rock uplift rates of ∼500 and ∼800 mm ka −1 for the eastern and central parts of the range, respectively. The fact that the rock uplift rate in the high center of the Yumu Shan exceeds catchment‐wide 10 Be denudation rates, which range from ∼180 to ∼280 mm ka −1 , indicates that the mountain range continues to rise and has not yet reached a topographic steady state. Combining the total structural relief of the range with the rates of rock uplift and denudation suggests that the growth of the Yumu Shan started 3.7 ± 0.9 Ma ago.