Kunlun Mountain is separated from Tarim Basin and Qaidam Basin by deep faults. The great fault zone at the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain is a strong earthquake zone, including two major faults: West Kunlun and Altun Mountain. An earthquake of magnitude 8. 1 occurred in the west of Kunlun mountain pass in eastern Qinghai.
The north-south seismic belt of Tianshan Mountain, especially the border between the western part of South Tianshan Mountain and Pamir, is a high-incidence area of strong earthquakes in the global mainland. The earthquake type is characterized by compressive thrust, which reflects the two-way thrust of Tianshan Mountain on Tarim and Junggar Basin. Historical strong earthquakes include 1902 M = 8 and M =14 earthquakes in northern Atushi, Xinjiang, 18 12 Nilekha M = 8 earthquake, 1906 Manas M = 7.7 earthquake. The Jiashi, Jinghe, Wuqia and Kashi earthquakes in recent years are all located in this seismic zone. Big cities, including the provincial capital Urumqi, are threatened by the earthquake zone (Urumqi is not far from the fault zone, similar to Chengdu to Wenchuan).
Altai fault zone is located in Altay region in the northeast of northern Xinjiang, and includes many NW-SE dextral strike-slip faults, such as Erqis fault, Ertai fault, Burgen fault, Erlantu fault and URI cap rock fault. The typical strong earthquake in history is 193 1 year Fuyun-Qinghe fault (M = 8).
It can be said that most of the seismic belts in Xinjiang are near the mountains of the plain basin in front of the mountains. Due to the climatic characteristics of Xinjiang, these areas are often oases with dense population, which increases the threat brought by earthquakes.
The attached figure shows the distribution of earthquakes with magnitude above 3.0 in Xinjiang Earthquake Information Network since 2008, and the gray thin lines are faults.