Late Permian to Late Triassic palaeomagnetic data from Iran: constraints on the migration of the Iranian block through the Tethyan Ocean and initial destruction of Pangaea

A palaeomagnetic study of Late Permian to early Jurassic rocks from the Alborz and Sanandaj–Sirjan zones in Iran and a compilation of selected palaeopoles from the Carboniferous to the present provide an updated history of the motion of the Iranian block within the Tethys Ocean. The Iran assemblage, part of Gondwana during the Palaeozoic, rifted away by the end of the Permian. We ascertain the southern-hemisphere palaeoposition of Iran at that time using magnetostratigraphy and show that it was situated close to Arabia, near to its relative position today. A northward transit of this block during the Triassic is shown, with an estimated expansion rate of the Neotethyan ridge of 100–140  km Myr⁻¹. The northward convergence with respect to Eurasia ended during the Ladinian (Middle Triassic), and is marked by a collision in the northern hemisphere with the Turan platform, which was the southern margin of the Eurasian continent at that time. No north–south component of shortening is evidenced north of Iran afterwards. An analysis of the declinations from the Late Permian to the present shows different, large rotations, emphasizing the important tectonic phases suffered since the Triassic. Finally, we propose palaeomagnetic reconstructions of the Tethys area during the Late Permian and the Late Triassic, showing that the Palaeotethys Ocean was narrower than previously thought, and did not widen its gate to the Panthalassa before the Triassic period.