The Qilian （祁连） Mountain is an active orogenic belt located at the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. During the process of continuous convergence between Indian and Eurasian plates, the Qilian Mountain grow correspondingly by means of reaction of old faults and generation of new ones. Here we present apatite fission-track data along a river profile crossing three minor fault （the Minle （民乐）-Damaying （大马营） fault, the Huangcheng （皇城）-Taerzhuang （塔尔庄） fault and the Kangningqiao （唐宁桥） fault） which compose the North Qilian fault （NQF） to test the timing and pat- terns of the fault activities. Apatite fission-track （AFT） results indicate that these minor faults expe- rienced two active phases in the Cretaceous and the Oligocene-Miocene. Further research indicate that the initiation timing of faulting became younger northward in both active periods and the later phase probably more active than the former phase. These tectonic activities might be highly related to the docking of the Lhasa Block to the south in the Cretaceous and uplift and expansion of the Tibetan Pla- teau in the Cenozoic.
