Altyn Tagh Fault
Tibet / China · continental transform · 5969.1 km of mapped active fault in 30 traces
background as of 7 November 2026.
consistent with baseline
| Window | the last 30.0 days |
|---|---|
| Earthquakes counted | 0 at M4.5 or above |
| Expected in that window | 0.16 |
What this system normally does
From 1995 to 2025 the catalogue holds 58 earthquakes of M4.5 or larger attributable to this system: about 1.93 a year. That figure is what "elevated" on this page is measured against.
The fault itself
| Mapped length | 5969.1 km |
|---|---|
| Traces | 30 |
| Tectonic setting | continental transform |
| Slip types | Sinistral |
| Depth attributed to it | down to 50.0 km |
| Extent | 35.90 to 40.08 latitude, 82.15 to 97.16 longitude |
Recorded history
NOAA's hazard records hold 3 significant earthquakes attributed to this system since 1924.
The deadliest was the 25 December 1932 magnitude 7.6 earthquake (China: Gansu Province), which killed 275 people.
The most recent entry is the 12 February 2014 magnitude 6.9 earthquake (China: Xinjiang Province: Yutian).
Across the entries that record a death toll, 375 people died.
| Date | What | Where | Toll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 December 1932 | magnitude 7.6 earthquake | China: Gansu Province | 275 dead, 1,167 homes destroyed, damage $5 to 25 million |
| 3 July 1924 | magnitude 7.3 earthquake | China: Xinjiang | 100 dead, damage $1 to 5 million |
| 12 February 2014 | magnitude 6.9 earthquake | China: Xinjiang Province: Yutian | 25,000 homes destroyed, $174 million damage |
A dash means NOAA recorded no number, not that nobody died. Older entries are fewer because fewer were written down, not because less happened.
Recorded history: NOAA NCEI hazard databases, public domain, retrieved 2026-10-22.
Other systems in Tibet / China
Where these numbers come from
Fault geometry, length and segment counts: GEM Global Active Faults Database (GEM GAF-DB), GEM Foundation, https://github.com/GEMScienceTools/gem-global-active-faults Licence: CC-BY-SA-4.0. Figures derived from it here are offered under the same licence. Earthquake counts, magnitudes and depths: United States Geological Survey, public domain. The activity judgement is ours, computed from those two inputs, and is not a statement by either agency.