首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
     


Late Tertiary tectonic evolution of northern Iran: A case for simple crustal folding
Authors:Bernard Guest   Alice Guest  Gary Axen  
Affiliation:aCalifornia Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena California, USA;bUniversity of California Los Angeles, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, California, USA
Abstract:Here we present a crustal folding or buckling mechanism to explain the rootless 3–5 km high Alborz Mountains in northern Iran as well as not, vert, similar 10 km of Late Miocene to recent subsidence in the south Caspian basin and not, vert, similar 3–6 km of subsidence in the central Iranian basin in the context of the middle Miocene to recent Arabia–Eurasia collision. A key element of the mechanism is the presence of lateral and vertical lithospheric strength contrasts between the north Iranian continental and south Caspian oceanic crusts: when compression from the collision is applied across the region, the strong south Caspian oceanic crust, buried under > 10 km of premiddle Miocene sediment, interacts with the bottom of the mechanically strong continental upper crust of northern Iran, resulting in upward buckling of the continental crust and downward buckling of the oceanic crust. We test this mechanism using a finite-element numerical model with a Maxwell rheology and obtain results that are consistent with the geological and geophysical observations. The observations compiled here and the model results demonstrate the potential for using this region as a natural laboratory for studying the early stages of continent–oceanic collision, including processes like basin inversion, fault localization and, potentially, subduction initiation.
Keywords:lithospheric buckling or folding   fault localization   subduction initiation   basin inversion   Alborz   Iran   south Caspian basin
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录!
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号