[1] Large topographic belts along convergent margins have been recognized with the ability to slowdown the kinematics of subduction over geologically short time periods (i.e., few Myr), because their associated gravitational spreading provides significant resistive force within the framework of plate tectonics. The record of past and present-day plate kinematics provides important constraints o...

Quantified balanced and restored crustal cross-sections across the NW Zagros Mountains are presented in this work integrating geological and geophysical local and global datasets. The balanced crustal cross-section reproduces the surficial folding and thrusting of the thick cover succession, including the near top of the Sarvak Formation (∼ 90 Ma) that forms the top of the restored crustal cros...

the kasian volcanic body is located in the eastern margin of the zagros thrust belt, close to the sanandaj-sirjan metamorphic zone. these volcanic rocks are mainly composed of andesite and andesite-basalt rocks with porphyritic, hypocrystalline porphyritic, hyalo-porphyritic and hyalo-microlitic porphyritic textures. analyses of the distributions of major, rare earth and trace elements reveal a...

The authors propose that a heat-driven circulation from the Zagros Plateau has a significant impact on the climate of the Middle East Plain (MEP), especially summertime winds, air temperature, and aridity. This proposal is examined in numerical experiments with a regional climate model. Simulations in which the Zagros Plateau was assigned a highly reflective, “snowlike” albedo neutralized the h...

the nw-se trending zagros fold and thrust belt extends for about 1,800 km from a location some 300 km se of the east anatolian fault in ne turkey to the strait of hormuz where the north-south trending zendan-minab-palami fault system (zmp) separates the zagros belt from the makran accretionary prism. the ne limit of the zagros belt is marked by the main zagros reverse fault which is rotated abo...

Field observations, together with the results of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and stable carbon isotope analysis bitumen, coupled fluid inclusion microthermometry analyses closely associated vug- fracture-filling columnar calcite in Upper Cretaceous Bekhme Formation, Kurdistan Region Iraq, suggest that degradation crude oil was caused by regional incursion meteoric waters. This ...

In contrast to continent/continent collision, arc-continent collision generates very short-lived orogeny because the buoyancy-driven impedance of the subduction of continental lithosphere, accompanied by arc/suprasubduction-zone ophiolite obduction, is relieved by subduction polarity reversal (flip). This tectonic principle is illustrated by the early Ordovician Grampian Orogeny in the British ...

The Zagros orogeny in Iran is associated with two successive geodynamic events during the Tertiary period, a Paleogene NE-directed regional crustal extension followed by a Miocene NW-directed regional crustal extension and a magmatic flare-up. The current study was undertaken to reanalyze previous structural work developed on the extensional Chapedony metamorphic core complex in Central Iran ex...