Abstract:Active faults refer to faults that have been active since late Quaternary. It threatens the safety of human life and property. Through literature research, combining with actual fault survey work in Zhujiang Delta, geological survey, shallow seismic exploration, fault gas measurement, drilling and hole section, fault material dating and historical earthquake, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these methods have been introduced in this paper. Problems and suggestions of present active fault detection have been pointed out.