@article{9bd7cd832493406588cfcaa5d9af58e7,
title = "The Pamir Frontal Thrust Fault: Holocene Full-Segment Ruptures and Implications for Complex Segment Interactions in a Continental Collision Zone",
abstract = "The Pamir Frontal Thrust (PFT) of the Trans-Alai Range in Central Asia is the principal active fault of the intracontinental convergence zone between the Pamir and Tien Shan. Its northward propagation is reflected by frequent seismic activity and ongoing crustal shortening. Recent and historic earthquakes exhibit complex rupture patterns within and across seismotectonic segments bounding the Trans Alai, challenging our understanding of fault interaction and seismogenic potential. We provide paleoseismic data from five trenches along the central PFT segment (cPFT) and interpret five and possibly six paleoearthquakes that have ruptured since ∼7 ka and 16 ka, respectively. Our results indicate that at least three major earthquakes ruptured the full-segment length and possibly crossed segment boundaries with a recurrence interval of ∼1.9 kyr and potential magnitudes of up to Mw 7.4. We did not find evidence for great (i.e., Mw ≥8) earthquakes. However, discrepancies between slip and rupture extent during apparent partial segment ruptures in the western half of the cPFT, combined with significantly higher scarp offsets, indicate a more mature fault section with potential for future fault linkage. We estimate an average rate of horizontal motion for the cPFT of 4.1 ± 1.5 mm/yr during the past ∼5 kyr, which does not fully match the GNSS-derived present-day shortening rate of ∼10 mm/yr. This suggests a complex distribution of strain accumulation and potential slip partitioning between the cPFT and additional faults and folds within the Pamir that may be associated with a partially locked regional d{\'e}collement.",
keywords = "Central Asia, Paleoseismology, Pamir Frontal Thrust, Range Front, Segmentation, Slip Rate",
author = "M. Patyniak and A. Landgraf and A. Dzhumabaeva and S. Baikulov and Williams, {A. M.} and Weiss, {J. R.} and Hilley, {G. E.} and F. Preusser and Abdrakhmatov, {K. E.} and Arrowsmith, {R. J.} and Strecker, {M. R.}",
note = "Funding Information: This project is part of the CaTeNA‐project within the Client II program of and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; Sub‐project grant 03G0878E to Manfred Strecker). The sole responsibility for the report's contents lies with the authors. We are grateful to Sabrina Metzger for her contribution to the CaTeNA‐project design and for many insightful discussions about the tectonics of the Pamir‐Alai setting. Part of this work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation grant AZ 86860 to O. Korup, A. Landgraf, and A. Dzhumabaeva, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (D.F.G.) granted to M. Strecker, an INTAS grant by the EC to M. Strecker and K. Haselton, the U.S. National Science Foundation grant EAR‐9805319 to R. Arrowsmith, and the German Science Foundation project STU 525/2‐2 awarded to K. St{\"u}bner. Our fieldwork was kindly supported by the Institute of Seismology at the National Academy of Science of Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan); we further thank A. and O. Korjenkov, A. Konykov, E. Mamyrov, and M. Omaruliev for field and logistical support, and I. Coutand, B. Czassny, R. Thiede, and E. Young for assistance in the field during the 1999 campaign. We thank S. Forman for his contribution and his precise preparation and analysis of the 1999 OSL samples. The authors would also like to thank T. Goslar from the Radiocarbon Laboratory (Poznan, Poland) for analyzing our radiocarbon samples, and J. Elliot for providing the scarp fit and vertical separation modeling script. We thank R. Walker, one anonymous reviewer, and the Associate Editor from the journal for constructive reviews that helped to improve the original manuscript. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding Information: This project is part of the CaTeNA-project within the Client II program of and funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; Sub-project grant 03G0878E to Manfred Strecker). The sole responsibility for the report's contents lies with the authors. We are grateful to Sabrina Metzger for her contribution to the CaTeNA-project design and for many insightful discussions about the tectonics of the Pamir-Alai setting. Part of this work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation grant AZ 86860 to O. Korup, A. Landgraf, and A. Dzhumabaeva, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (D.F.G.) granted to M. Strecker, an INTAS grant by the EC to M. Strecker and K. Haselton, the U.S. National Science Foundation grant EAR-9805319 to R. Arrowsmith, and the German Science Foundation project STU 525/2-2 awarded to K. St{\"u}bner. Our fieldwork was kindly supported by the Institute of Seismology at the National Academy of Science of Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan); we further thank A. and O. Korjenkov, A. Konykov, E. Mamyrov, and M. Omaruliev for field and logistical support, and I. Coutand, B. Czassny, R. Thiede, and E. Young for assistance in the field during the 1999 campaign. We thank S. Forman for his contribution and his precise preparation and analysis of the 1999 OSL samples. The authors would also like to thank T. Goslar from the Radiocarbon Laboratory (Poznan, Poland) for analyzing our radiocarbon samples, and J. Elliot for providing the scarp fit and vertical separation modeling script. We thank R. Walker, one anonymous reviewer, and the Associate Editor from the journal for constructive reviews that helped to improve the original manuscript. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021. The Authors.",
year = "2021",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1029/2021JB022405",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "126",
journal = "Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth",
issn = "2169-9313",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
number = "12",
}