Orogen-parallel Variation in Flexure of the Arabian Plate Beneath the Zagros Mountains

Abstract:

The Zagros Mountains are the part of the Alpine-Himalayan chain that forms the northern margin of the Arabian plate and comprises a Neogene-Recent sedimentary basin that is forming in response to ongoing Arabia-Eurasia collision. Flexure of the Arabian lithosphere beneath the Zagros forms one of largest and most active basins in the world at which a backstripped deflection of a competent layer just below the foreland deposits represents its total amount of tectonic subsidence. As such, the Asmari Fm. can be used to analyze flexural bending and subsequently the amount of loading and elastic thickness of the Arabian lithosphere since the continent-continent collision started. In this study, flexure of the Arabian lithosphere is investigated using more than 100 boreholes and 60 interpreted seismic lines which show that the flexure is shallower (~ 1 km) and wider in the east and deeper (~6 km) and narrower towards the west (Figure 1). The shallow and wide eastern foredeep has little accommodation space due to small tectonic loads and the thick lithosphere in this region. In addition, viscous strength in the eastern sector leads to a wide deformation belt with low topography and low surface slopes. These factors, combined with arid climatic conditions, produce low sediment supply to the foreland basin so that it remains under-filled even though the foreland basin is shallow. In contrast, the western part of the Zagros region shows much larger accommodation space due to the combination of large loads and a relatively thin elastic plate. In the western sector, frictional basal strength and steeper topography along with more humid climatic conditions leading to a large supply of sediment to the foreland which is completely filled even though the foreland basin is deep.

Our results also show that the Zagros foreland basin migrated towards south through the Neogene; however, the way of propagation is not fully understood yet. The eastern depocenter of the Zagros foreland migrated towards south about ~400 km during the last 17 Ma, whereas this migration decreases to about ~100 km towards the west. Our preliminary results propose that the western Zagros foreland basin is developing under wedge growing condition and the eastern sector is growing due to thrusting beneath the steady-state wedge (?), but the idea requires further analysis.