The Shkoder-Peja Normal Fault (SPNF) is the largest orogen-perpendicular fault on the Balkan Peninsula, separating the Dinarides fold-and-thrust belt in the north from the Hellenides in the south. It has accommodated orogen-parallel extension during clockwise oroclinal bending of the Hellenic segment since the Eocene-Oligocene. It juxtaposes Adriatic shelf successions in its footwall against obducted ophiolites in its hanging wall. Despite its length of at least 100 km, it is still an improperly understood feature. In this study, we combine results of geological mapping of a c. 13 km swath along this fault in Northern Albania with fault-slip data, Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous matter (RSCM) and K-Ar dating of fault gouges to better constrain the kinematics and age of this fault. Our results provide evidence for top-SSE extension across the SPNF, post-dating Eocene nappe stacking and truncating nappe-internal folds within the footwall units. Illite crystallinity and RSCM data suggest that anchizonal vs. diagenetic conditions were reached in the footwall and hanging wall units, respectively. K-Ar dates of various grain size fractions (2-6, <2 and <0.2 µm) from fault gouges yield “mixed dates” of authigenic and inherited illite between 47 and 106 Ma and modelled ages of authigenic illite as young as c. 6 Ma. As minimum temperatures of c. 110 °C are required for the formation of authigenic illite, younger fault activity at lower temperatures cannot be excluded. In view of a number of recent GNSS studies, we consider it likely that the Shkoder-Peja Normal Fault is still actively accommodating deformation.

Crustal material eastward extrusion from the Tibetan Plateau is closely related to the strike-slip faults in the SE margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The left-lateral strike-slip Xianshuihe–Xiaojiang fault system (XXFS) is the most active and the largest-scale one. The slip rates along the XXFS is crucial for unraveling the kinematics of the SE margin of the Tibetan Plateau. The central section of the XXFS, also known as the Anninghe–Zemuhe section, was poorly researched owing to its inaccessibility, a lack of high-quality quantitative age data, as well as questionable displacement determination and methodology. In this study, we adopted high-resolution topographic data (terrestrial laser scanning) and high-accuracy dating methods (OSL and 14C) to obtain more reliable slip rates of Anninghe Fault and Zemuhe Fault. The late Quaternary slip rates of Anninghe Fault and Zemuhe Fault were constrained to be 6.9±0.6 mm/a and 11.2±0.4 mm/a, respectively. A large of rate statistics was also conducted along the XXFS. We found that the slip rate of the XXFS is in a narrow range of 12–15 mm/a (slightly increasing from north to south) after taking the Daliangshan Fault into account. Combined with the analysis of the relationship between the active faults and block rotation, we proposed that the uniform high-speed strike-slip along the XXFS largely constrains the clockwise rotation of the SE margin of the Tibetan Plateau.