The poor investigation of active faults and incomplete data of historical earthquakes in the northern Tibetan Plateau limit the deep understanding to the internal active tectonic deformation mechanism and the characteristics of strong earthquakes. The active faults around northern Ngari area are interpreted in detail by integrated geological, seismic and remote sensing data, and the latest coseismic surface rupture been discovered by field surveying along the west boundary normal fault of the Kunchuke Co graben which is located in the southern segment of the Aru Co graben system. An in- depth analysis was carried out about the geometric images and kinematic characteristics of active faults around northern Ngari area, magnitude and formation time of surface rupture of Kunchuke Co based on new data. The results show that the active faults with high density and dispersive distribution are developed in the western Qiangtang block of northern Ngari area during the Quaternary period, which are dominated by the nearly south- north trending normal fault system and the conjugate strike- slip fault system composed of the NW and NE trending faults.The active tectonic deformation can be classified into three basic styles: conjugate strike- slip faulting and its associated normal faults, local diffuse normal faulting and normal faulting resulted from local rifting with shear component in western Qiangtang block. Most of normal faults do not have direct kinematic relationship with strike- slip faults, and they are mainly relatively independent active structures that jointly regulate the near east- west extensional deformation in western Qiangtang block. These characteristics indicate that the internal deformation of the central Tibetan Plateau is more consistent with the “Continuous deformation model” and not with the “rigid block extrusion model”. The latest surface rupture along the main boundary fault at the western edge of Kunchuke Co graben a typical normal fault rupture, with the surface length of nearly 400 m and the maximum vertical displacement of about 0.8 m, and maybe a small- scale surface rupture event caused by the MW 6.5 strong earthquake at east of Nawo Co in Gêgyai County in 1955. In addition, the Quaternary faulting and relatively frequent historical earthquake activity of Aru graben maybe key dynamic conditions to the 2016 giant twin glacier collapses. We suggest that the similar glacier collapses disaster risk should be taken seriously when important engineering or construction of infrastructure and urban planning are carried out around the Quaternary normal faults in central and southern Tibet.