The Effect of Mechanical Characteristics of Basal Decollement and Basement Structures on Deformation of the Zagros Basin

Two fundamental structural elements, basement architecture and basal decollement, play a significant role in the evolution of a tectonically active region. Using different approaches (field data, literature review and analogue models) this thesis demonstrates that these two elements affected the deformation style in the Zagros fold-thrust belt during Mesozoic extensional and Cenozoic contractional episodes. Reassessment of available data suggests a new configuration for the basement to Zagros basin that consists of basement faults with three different trends. Complicated interrelationships of these basement faults divide the Zagros basin into two major basement blocks, active and passive. This model associated with geological evidence suggests that deformation in the basement due to the convergence between Arabia and Iran is not restricted to the Zagros Mountains but already involves a considerable part of the Arabian platform. However, deformation in the cover units is not only governed by the deformation in the basement, which are decoupled from each other by the Hormuz salt in many parts in the Zagros fold-thrust belt. Geological evidence shows that there is a clear relationship between activity of the Hormuz structures and the basement faults in the Zagros basin. Extended analogue models indirectly show how Hormuz types of basal decollement associated with the opening of Neo-Tethys can control the distribution, number, width and geometry of faults, penetrative strain, and diapirism. Analogue models shortened from one-end show that the spatial distribution of the Hormuz salt in the Zagros belt map viscous and frictional decollements to the thin-skinned deformation. Shortening of the cover results in formation of partitioning of strain into transpressional zones, different topographic wedges and differential sedimentation of growth sediments along the Zagros belt. Model results supported by geological and geophysical data sets suggest that some of the faults previously attributed to basement could have developed above the initial lateral boundaries between viscous and frictional basal decollements.