Author Description

Within foreland basins, deformed geomorphic features, such as fluvial terraces and alluvial fans, record the activity of faults and folds and serve as important markers for estimating structural geometry and fault slip rates. However, within hinterland, mountainous regions, a lack of such suitable marker limits resolution of deeper fault geometry and kinematics. In the North Qilian Shan of western China, widely distributed, deeply incised, and well-preserved alluvial fans and river terraces aggraded deep into the range interior and covered the foreland basin. Deformation of these features records tectonic activity across both the foreland and hinterland, offering a unique opportunity to use these geomorphic markers to elucidate the geometry and rates of deep-seated faulting. My thesis integrates field surveying and mapping, remote sensing analysis, and geochronology data to (Chapter 1) understand and constrain the formation process of fill terraces in the western North Qilian Shan, (Chapter 2) quantify patterns of uplift to test kinematic and elastic models for hinterland deformation and deduce the deep geometry and slip distribution of the North Qilian fault, and (Chapter 3) build a structural model linking foreland and hinterland deformation. Field surveys document two generations of fill terraces, T1 and T2, preserved extensively along Beida River within the North Qilian mountain range. Geochronology, terrace profile analysis, and numerical modeling suggest that after the abandonment of T1, the Beida River has incised 135 m at mountain front since the Late Pleistocene at an average rate of 0.6 cm/yr. Incision rate further increased, to ~7 cm/yr, during a