Neotectonic activity and formation mechanism of the Yishu Fault Zone

On the basis of comprehensive analyses of fault textures and geometry, the active methods, stress field, mechanism and time of the Yishu Fault Zone during the neotectonic period are discussed in this paper. The results show that the Yishu Fault Zone is a major mobile belt since the Quaternary. It consists of four major active faults with reverse dextral slip. Their active intensity increases eastwards and southwards. Fault-slip data from many active faults in the fault zone demonstrate that ENE-WSW compression predominated in the neotectonic period. Detailed field investigation shows that formation mechanism of shallow, active faults in the Yishu Fault Zone includes direct boundary fault reactivity, buried fault propagation, and reactivity of antithetic and truncating faults. In most cases, shallow, active faults in the fault zone are developed through direct reactivity or upward propagation of the previous four graben boundary faults.