Active Deformation in the Zagros-Makran Transition Zone Inferred From GPS, Tectonic and Seismological Measurements
Abstract
The present-day N-S convergence between the Arabian and the Eurasian plates is accommodated in Southern Iran along the Zagros fold and thrust belt (with a shortening of ~8 mm/yr)and by the subduction of the Oman oceanic lithosphere beneath the Makran (with a rate of 18mm/yr). The Bandar Abbas-Strait of Hormuz zone is considered as a transition between the Zagros continental collision and the Makran oceanic subduction. In this area, the strain is mainly accommodated along the NNW-SSE trending reverse right lateral Minab-Zendan-Palami faults and along the N-S trending faults of Sarduiyeh, Jiroft and Sabzevaran. We used GPS network measurements (carried out in 2000 and 2002) to better understand how the deformation is distributed between between the Zagros continental collision and the Makran oceanic subduction. The analysis of the velocities (together with the measurements of the global network of Iran) leads to the following conclusions : - The rate of shortening in the Eastern Zagros is < 8mm/yr. It is < 5 mm/yr between the coast and the Main Zagros Thrust. - The horizontal residual velocities of the coastal sites in Zagros relative to Musandan are < 3mm/yr, evidencing for a small deformation in the Persian Gulf. - Across the Minab-Zendan-Palami faults system GPS measurements are consistent with a N-S trending reverse right lateral motion at rate of ~ 10 mm/yr. - West of the Lut block at the latitude of Khanuj, the N-S trending Sarduiyeh-Jiroft-Sabzevaran fault system is characterized by a 2 mm/yr right strike slip motion. Local seismicity is located at an unusual depth down to 35 km. Little is associated with the Minab-Zendan-Palami faults strike slip faults. They rather suggest that they are associated with a complex transition between the Zagros collision and the Makran subduction. Times delays also suggest a large heterogeneity in the crust across the fault system. These measurements support the model that the convergence from the collision to the subduction is accommodated within a crustal transpressional fault system along the Minab-Zendan-Palami faults.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002AGUFM.S62B1188B
- Keywords:
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- 1206 Crustal movements: interplate (8155);
- 1208 Crustal movements: intraplate (8110);
- 7230 Seismicity and seismotectonics