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Tectonically, the large-scale right-lateral strike-slip movement along the Red River fault zone is char-acterized at its late phase with the southeastward extension and deformation of the Northwestern Yunnan normal fault depression on its northern segment, and the dextral shear displacement on its central-southern segment. Research of the relations between stratum deformation and fault movement on the typical fault segments, such as Jianchuan, southeast Midu, Yuanjiang River, Yuanyang, etc. since the Miocene Epoch shows that there are two times dextral faulting dominated by normal shearing occurring along the Red River fault zone since the Miocene Epoch. The fission track dating (abbrevi-ated to FT dating, the same below) is conducted on apatite samples collected from the above fault segments and relating to these movements. Based on the measured single grain’s age and the con-fined track length, we choose the Laslet annealing model to retrieve the thermal history of the samples, and the results show that the fault zone experienced two times obvious shear displacement, one in 5.5 ± 1.5 MaBP and the other in 2.1± 0.8 MaBP. The central-southern segment sees two intensive uplifts of mountain mass in the Yuanjiang River-Yuanyang region at 3.6―3.8 MaBP and 1.6―2.3 MaBP, which correspond to the above-mentioned two dextral normal displacement events since the late Miocene Epoch.

Lijiang-Daju fault, the seismogenic fault of the 1996 Lijiang M=7.0 earthquake, can be divided into Lijiang-Yuhu segment in the south and Yuhu-Daju segment in the north. The two segments show clear difference in geological tectonics, but have the similar dynamic features. Both normal dip-slip and sinistral strike-slip coexist on the fault plane. This kind of movement started at the beginning of the Quaternary (2.4–2.5 Ma B.P.). As to the tectonic types, the detachment fault with low angle was developed in the Early Pleistocene and the normal fault with high angle only after the Mid-Pleistocene (0.8 Ma B.P.). Based on the horizontal displacements of gullies and the vertical variance of planation surfaces cross the Lijiang-Daju fault at east piedmont of Yulong-Haba range, the average horizontal and vertical slip rates are calculated. They are 0.84 mm/a and 0.70 mm/a since the Quaternary and 1.56 mm/a and 1.69 mm/a since the Mid-Pleistocene. The movements of the nearly N-S-trending Lijiang-Daju fault are controlled not only by the regional stress field, but also by the variant movement between the Yulong-Haba range and Lijiang basin. The two kinds of dynamic processes form the characteristics of seismotectonic environment of occurring the 1996 Lijiang earthquake.

Fieldwork south of the city of Gaotai (Gansu province, China) shows that active shortening of surface sediments in the foothills of the Yumu Shan, a large fore-mountain of the Qilian Shan, at the northeastern edge of Tibet, involves both overthrusting and flexural-slip folding. North of this mountain, we found and mapped a prominent north-facing thrust scarp that offsets a Holocene fan sloping gently (3.4°) to the north. Part of this scarp appears to be related to the M ≈ 7.5, 180 A.D. earthquake that may have led to the demise of the Han Dynasty city of Luo Tuo Chen, in the Hexi corridor. A set of 10, 100–150 m long profiles measured across this scarp, 3.2 m high on the average, can be made to fit the diffusion-degraded morphology of a surface break related to the 180 A.D. event using a value of about 3.3 m^2/10^3 yr for the mass diffusivity ϰ of fanglomerates in this part of Gansu province. Smaller mountain-facing scarps on a terrace-capped foothill result from bedding slip concurrent with active folding of underlying, steeply northdipping, Plioquaternary sandstone and conglomerate beds. Holocene uplift rates along the Yumu Shan, which is only one of the Qilian Shan ranges, are estimated to be between 0.4 and 1.9 mm/yr, which implies that much of the mountain formed in the Quaternary. The periclinal structure of the Plioquaternary envelope under which the Paleozoic core of the Yumu Shan plunges towards the west suggests that the whole 3200 m high mountain is a basement ramp anticline. Mountains striking parallel to the Yumu Shan, with similar structure and comparable or greater sizes north and south of the Hexi corridor probably also correspond to recent, crustal ramp anticlines. This implies that the wide, mountainous upper crustal wedge making the northeastern edge of the Tibet-Qinghai plateau is detached from the underlying lower crust and upper mantle.