The influence of tectonic movements upon changes in river alignment - The example of the Lower Khazir River

The Lower Khazir River provides a good example of changes in river alignment associated with neotectonic movements. The aim of this paper is to address the two following questions: 1How big an impact does the river exert upon the process of (fold) anticline growth? 2Where are the largest geomorphic changes along the lower course of the Khazir River and how are they connected to the sinuosity of the Maqlub and Ain Al-Safra and Makhmoore folds? In order to identify the dry gaps on the anticlines, analyses of two and three dimensional images are performed during the whole research procedure. The growing fold exerts an influence upon the latitudinal displacement of the river bed to the east. Faults and soft rocks play a role in the fo ld and river morphology. The current gap occupied by the river (water gap) is determined by the flow of the river following the abandonment of the old gap (dry gap) located on the nose of the fold. The morphology of the river changes along with an increase in sinuosity of the Maqlub and Ain Al-Safra folds. The distance over which there is intense morphological change of the old gap reaches 2.5 km, and 3.5 km in case of the water gap on the Maqlub and Ain Al-Safra folds. The morphology of this river is more straightforward in the Makhmore folds than the Maqlub and Ain Al-Safra folds. Considerable changes in the river's morphology continue on the Makhmore folds along the 11.5 km course from the old gap to the water gap.