Numerous significant earthquakes have occurred in the Tibetan Plateau since the recent decades years, attracting considerable attention from scholars both domestically and internationally. These major earthquakes often occur along enormous fault zones, which not only exhibit intense activity in the late Quaternary period but also possess structural conditions necessary for the development and occurrence of strong earthquakes. The Karakorum fault stands out as a large- scale dextral strike- slip fault in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau. The part south of the Lungmu Co fault more pronounced activity and has experienced the Pulan M S7. 0 earthquake in 1883. Understanding the most recent deformation behavior of this fault and analyzing its seismogenic characteristics are crucial in identifying the segmented activity patterns and surface rupture features of the fault zone. Based on high resolution remote sensing image interpretation and field geological survey, the late Quaternary segmented activity of the southern section of the Karakorum fault and the Chaxikang surface rupture zone have been meticulously investigated. The findings reveal that the southern section of the fault zone can be further divided into three primary segments: Ladakh- Chaxikang, Kunsha- Bar and Menshi- Gongzhu Co segment. These segments are characterized by dextral strike- slip, dextral strike- slip normal faulting and dextral strike- slip with a horsetail normal fault, respectively. Measurements taken from the surface rupture zone indicate a minimum horizontal displacement of 8~9 m. Considering the approximately 200 km length of the surface rupture, it is estimated that the magnitude of the earthquake could be ~7. 5. The Karakorum fault zone, which controls the material extrusion in the western plateau, gradually transforms from a rigid block migration mode in the northwest section to a more dispersed arc- shaped normal fault and strike slip deformation in the southeast section.