Present-day deformation of northern Pakistan from Salt Ranges to Karakorum Ranges

Episodic GPS measurements are used to quantify the present-day velocity field in the northwestern Himalaya from the southern Pamir to the Himalayan foreland. We report large postseismic displacements following the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and several mm/yr thrusting of the central segment of the Salt Ranges and Potwar Plateau over the foreland, westward thrusting of Nanga Parbat above the Kohistan Plateau, and similar to 12 mm/yr SSE velocities of the Karakorum Ranges and of the Deosai and Kohistan Plateaus relative to the Indian Plate. Numerical simulations allow to determine a first approximation of slip along active faults: (1) substantial creep of similar to 87 mm/yr between 2006 and 2012 along the flat northeast of the Balakot-Bagh Thrust affected by the 2005 earthquake; (2) similar to 5 mm/yr slip of the central segment of the Salt Ranges and Potwar Plateau, whereas their western boundaries are clearly inactive over the time span covered by our measurements; (3) 13 mm/yr ductile slip along the Main Himalayan Thrust modeled by a dislocation dipping 7 degrees northward, locked at a depth of 15 km; and (4) similar to 20 mm/yr slip along the shear zone forming the western boundary of Nanga Parbat, between depths of 1.6 and 6.5 km. Residuals velocities suggest the existence of left-lateral strike slip along the Jhelum Fault.