## 3 Results
### Pamir Plateau and Adjacent Areas  
The material discontinuities along the western segment of PTS can be obviously tracked between the SKF and the Tajik-Afghan basin in Figures 3, 5 and 6. Compared with its deeper crust, the crust shallower than 17 km mainly reflects the collision between the Pamir Plateau and Tian Shan range. According to Figures 6 and 7, the basement of the Pamir Plateau is relatively intact since the areas with maximum THDs are primarily distributed along boundary structures such as the PTS, SSZ and WHS, among which the SSZ should be a deep active fault that cuts through the entire lithosphere. The current activity of the faults can be inferred from the spatial distribution of the area with maximum THDs. There are obvious maximum values distributed along the KF when the depth exceeds 0.5 km in Figure 3, which is not obvious at the surface of the Earth. Thus, it is suggested that the KF is a major fault between the Pamir Plateau and the Tibetan Plateau, but its present-day activity might not be obvious enough because its shallow crust is much less affected by its activity. This indication was proven by GPS observations that the slip rate along the KF is less than 5 mm/yr [41]. The KYS between the Pamir Plateau and the Tarim basin should be a major deep fault that cuts through the entire lithosphere because the material discontinuities along this fault can be recognized in all wavelet details. The RE and KKF are more evident near the bottom of the regional basement but not evident in the shallower crust (as shown in Figures 3 and 4), which indicates that these two faults are inactive. The SKF separates eastern Pamir from western Pamir. Based on the observed fault scarps, offset geomorphological features and unconsolidated fault gouge, [PERSON] et al. (1995) suggested that the SKF accommodates sinistral shear and an approximately east-west extension between these two regions [42]. The eastern Pamir Plateau appears to be largely aseismic, whereas western Pamir shows several seismically active zones. The seismicity pattern of both eastern and western Pamir is significantly consistent with the spatial distribution of THDs in Figure 10. The field depths are also consistent with the deposit thickness within the Pamir Plateau, which ranges from \(\sim\)3 km to \(\sim\)6.5 km, according to the model CRUST1.0. Thus, the areas with maximum THDs in the uppermost crust of western Pamir mostly represent the fragmentation of the sedimentary layer. Based on a 2-year seismic record from a local network, [PERSON] et al. (2014) explained this seismicity pattern by the gravitational collapse of sedimentary rocks from western Pamir to the Tajik-Afghan basin [37]. In addition, the lack of significant seismicity and relatively lower level of THDs in eastern Pamir's interior indicate that the crust is relatively intact compared with western Pamir. Based on GPS observations, [PERSON] et al. (2010) indicated that eastern Pamir is moving northward with tiny interior deformations [43]. The Pamir-Hindukush region is unique in featuring intense intermediate depth seismicity in an intracontinental tectonic setting. From Figure 11b, we could detect two distinct subsets of seismicity beneath the Pamir-Hindukush seismic zone, which are separated by a seismic gap and a 90\({}^{\circ}\) change in dip and strike directions close to 36.8\({}^{\circ}\) N, 71.4\({}^{\circ}\) E. This peculiar geometry of these two species, apparently dipping in opposite directions, invariably leads to the question of their provenance. The seismic gap is located on the boundary between the positive and negative Bouguer gravity anomalies, which is marked by a red inverted triangle in Figure 11a. The opposite signs of Bouguer gravity anomalies along the trace of the profile in Figure 11a indicate their different tectonic provenances beneath Hindukush and southern Pamir. Using multiscale seismic arrival time data acquired from various sources, [PERSON] et al.