Historical rupture mapping and numerical modeling have shown that geometric complexities along faults, such as bends and stepovers, act as barriers to earthquake propagation. Over multiple earthquake cycles these complexities may shift between periods of more or less efficiency as rupture barriers due to local stress heterogeneities, leading to "earthquake gate" behavior. In my seminar I will detail how my collaborators and I have used a combination of paleoseismology, structural geology, and mechanical modeling to identify earthquake gate behavior at a geometric complexity along the Altyn Tagh fault, northwest China. I will show how the accommodation of deformation on secondary structures away from the primary fault may play a more important role in throughgoing rupture behavior than previously recognized, with implications for future numerical models of fault complexities.