Abstract:The northern margin fault of Qiamantag is located between the Qaidam basin and the Kunlun orogen. Its active features are responses to the Tibetan Plateau uplift, which we examine in this paper to better understand the Tibetan Plateau's tectonic evolution. To date, the northern margin fault of Qimantag has been little understood, including its active style and slip rate, which are important parameters in an active fault. To address this knowledge gap and to accurately determine the Qimantag fault's slip rate, we used methods related to active tectonics and tectonics geomorphology. We traced fault lines based on satellite imagery interpretation and field surveys, and found the fault scarp to be discontinuous along the strike. In this paper, we examine in detail three sites from the west to the east of this segment. Our results show that the fault widely ruptured young alluvial fans in the field to form 1.5~2.5 m high scarps in the west segment. The slopes of these scarps have angles of ~30°. Due to the lack of dateable depositions in the study area, we took no geochronological samples to date the age of the alluvial fans. However, we used a diffusion equation to constrain the age of the faulted scarps. Based on our calculations, the scarp is about 1 000~15 000 years old at the Q1 site, with a height of about 2.5 m. Based on the age and height of the scarps, we calculated their uplift rate to be about (2.0±0.5) mm/a. This value is similar to the results obtained from river incision and geodetic leveling. Based on our results, we consider the uplift rate to be 1~2 mm/a. In addition, we also established elevation longitudinal profiles and the hypsometric integrals along the Qimantag Mountain. These profiles and HI values indicate that the mountain is experiencing tectonic uplift.