The spatial pattern of slip rates along the Haiyuan fault zone may reveal deformation process along the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. By applying the 3D_Fault_Offsets code, we reevaluated the displacements of offset markers displaced by the Laohushan fault, the central segment of the Haiyuan fault zone. We introduced the Bayesian Age Model approach to provide optimum age control for the preserved offset markers. Multiple offsets and ages constrain the late Pleistocene slip rate to 4.4–4.8 mm/yr. The spatial pattern of strike‐slip rates of the Haiyuan fault zone indicates that the Madongshan and Liupanshan could be the main uplifts that absorbed the left‐lateral motion along the Haiyuan fault zone, due to a restraining bend between the Haiyuan and Qishan‐Mazhao fault zones. Furthermore, uniform slip rates along the main segments and slip rates decreasing toward fault tips are widely observed along some intensively studied strike‐slip faults, such as the Altyn Tagh, Kunlun, Death Valley‐Fish Lake Valley, Denali, San Andreas and Alpine faults. The results suggest that the constancy or similarity of the slip rates along the strike is closely related to block rotation and internal deformation, and the slip rates of strike‐slip faults usually change at the fault tip area converting from horizontal to vertical motion. In addition, strike‐slip fault can also take slip off of the main fault and distribute it between multiple active parallel strands.

SUMMARY: Environmental magnetism has become more and more popular because it is inexpensive, rapid and non-destructive. However, the environmental implication of traditional magnetic parameters is changed as the weathering intensity is contrasting. For example, magnetic susceptibility cannot be used as pedogenic index for strongly weathered red soils. Thermal magnetic measurement is a common way to identify magnetic minerals in rocks and sediments. Susceptibility enhancement after a 700 °C heating cycle in an argon atmosphere usually happened for various rocks and sediments. The increase is caused by formation of new magnetite from iron derived from paramagnetic iron-containing minerals. This is similar to pedogenesis or weathering process. The heating process in lab released the residual iron in weatherable iron-containing silicates which has not yet been depleted by contemporary pedogenesis or weathering. This residual iron can be quantified by the amount of susceptibility increase after a heating cycle. A negative correlation between the susceptibility increase after heating and the weathering intensity has been found in high-temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements of several sequences located in different climate zones. Results suggest that the degree of weathering can be estimated for intensely weathered red soils as well as for scarcely weathered loess using the amount of susceptibility change after a 700 °C heating cycle. This study provides new perspectives for developing new weathering and pedoclimate proxies using environmental magnetism.

The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) has great potential in deciphering weakly deformed fabrics that may be related to tectonic stress. Previous studies have suggested that magnetic lineation is a good indicator of paleostrain direction. It is unclear whether the magnetic fabric can also be used to indicate the present‐day strain field. To verify this idea, we measured the AMS of freshly consolidated lacustrine fine‐grained sediments at 11 locations in the Qaidam and Chaka‐Gonghe basins of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau and compared it with the present‐day strain field deduced from the global position system (GPS) velocity field. The magnetic lineations of both room‐temperature and low‐temperature AMS are roughly perpendicular to the GPS‐derived tectonic shortening direction within the error range, suggesting that the AMS of freshly consolidated muds is an effective indicator of the present‐day strain field, even if the sediments appear undeformed at the outcrop scale.

SUMMARY: Located at the modern junction of the Asian Summer Monsoon and the Westerlies, the northeastern Tibetan Plateau and western Chinese Loess Plateau are in distinct climatic setting from the middle and eastern Chinese Loess Plateau. Besides, Holocene climate variations near the Asian Summer Monsoon margin are highly debated with different models proposed. We carried out environmental magnetic analyses on the Minle loess section, with continuous deposition between 13.3–0.5 ka, located near this margin. Results show that the magnetic susceptibilities of palaeosols are dominantly contributed by superparamagnetic (SP) and single-domain (SD) maghemite and/or magnetite produced by pedogenesis. Limited changes in the content of haematite indicate that dust origin hardly influenced the magnetic mineral variations. The section is divided into four substages according to the changes in magnetic indices and provides a full scene of Holocene climatic evolutions. During the coldest and driest Late Glacial (13.3–11.7 ka), it displays the weakest pedogenesis, as suggested by the lowest SP and SD concentration. The strongest pedogenesis in the Minle section produced higher magnetic susceptibility than the loess records in the Chinese Loess Plateau during the early Holocene Optimum (11.7–8.1 ka). The subsequently declined summer insolation, equatorward migrated Westerlies and the weakened Asian Summer Monsoon led to weak pedogenesis during the middle Holocene (8.1–5.3 ka). Stronger pedogenesis during the late Holocene (5.3–0.5 ka) than the middle Holocene might be due to lower evapotranspiration from weaker insolation and/or to the enhanced winter Westerlies. We attribute the spatiotemporal differences in climatic records of the Chinese loess to precipitation, effective humidity and aeolian geomorphological processes.