Geology and depth structures of the main Karatau strike-slip fault, Southern Kazakhstan

The Main Karatau fault is a classical crustal strike-slip zone. It originated as a continental rift structure in the Late Proterozoic and had been developed incessantly for almost 1 billion years as inherited structure. The fault was subjected to polyphase deformations associated with both dextral and sinistral shifts. The Main Karatau fault crosses the Earth’s crust, including the structures of granite-metamorphic layer and granulite-basitic layer and fades without crossing the Moho discontunious. The amplitude of displacement of the Syr-Daria and Chu-Sarysu blocks relative to each other along the Main Karatau fault is estimated at approximately 200 km.