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Tethys-Marginal Sedimentary Basins in Western Iran

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Tethys-Marginal Sedimentary Basins in Western Iran Tethys-marginal sedimentary basins in western Iran VICTOR B. CHERVEN* MCO Resources, Inc., 10880 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90024 ABSTRACT paper is to summarize their geology and suggest a plate-tectonic setting for each. Five sedimentary basins formed along the Iranian margin of the Northeast of the Main Zagros Thrust in the Sanandaj-Sirjan and southern Tethys Ocean during its evolution. These basins record the neighboring ranges of the Rezaiyeh-Esfandagheh block lie two basins that opening and closing of the ocean basin and the collision of what is formed along the Iranian continental margin prior to Late Cretaceous now Arabia and llran. Arabian-Iranian collision (Fig. 1). Younger basins related to oceanic clo- The late Paleozoic-Jurassic Isfahan basin opened by continental sure and continental collision lie adjacent to both sides of the /Zagros rifting that began in the Devonian, and contains an early (late Paleo- Thrust. zoic-Triassic), passive-margin sequence and a later clastic-wedge phase. The Early Cretaceous Sanandaj basin is a forearc overlying the EARLY PALEOZOIC MIOGEOCLINE tectonized and subsided Isfahan basin. The latest Cretaceous-Paleo- cene Kermanshali basin is a remnant of the Tethys Ocean basin. It Lower Paleozoic strata throughout Iran, in much of Arabia and Iraq, initially lay along tectonic strike from the lengthening Arabian-Iranian and in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Jordan have a similar collision orogen ito the southeast but was later incorporated into the stratigraphy, which consists of upper Precambrian to Lower Cambrian orogenic foldbell. The late Cenozoic Zagros basin is a suture (fore- rhyolite and basalt overlain by Lower Cambrian salt, dolomite, aid ar- land) basin that formed on the Arabian plate as it attempted subduc- kosic to quartzitic sandstone, and Middle Cambrian to Silurian carbonate tion beneath Iran. The Paleogene tectonic setting of the Kashan-Gav- and shale (see summary in Berberian and King, 1981). This stratigraphic khuni basin is in doubt, but, by mid-Tertiary time, it was a foreland sequence records the development of a widespread Gondwanian piassive basin that lay landward of the collisional foldbelt and was nearly continental margin following late Precambrian orogenesis (Bender, 1975; surrounded by oiiher orogenic highlands that formed during conver- Stocklin, 1974). A nearly complete Paleozoic stratigraphic sequence in gence of other plates within and marginal to Iran. southeast Turkey (Flugel, 1971; Brinkman, 1971) suggests continuous subsidence there, but middle Paleozoic unconformities and thin red- INTRODUCTION bed-volcanic associations in parts of Iran and elsewhere suggest tectonic instability and are the first indications of incipient basin formation. That a majo;: ocean (southern Tethys) separated Arabia from Iran during the Mesozoic is now firmly established by detailed studies of ophio- ISFAHAN BASIN lite sequences that are exposed in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, the Oman Mountains of the Arabian Peninsula, and the Taurus Mountains of Turkey The lower Paleozoic miogeoclinal sequence is preserved (but locally (Alleman and Peters, 1972; Glennie and others, 1973; Haynes and metamorphosed) beneath Devonian or Permian unconformities in several McQuillan, 1974; Hallam, 1976; Gealey, 1977; Welland and Mitchell, places in the Sanandaj-Siijan Ranges (Thiele and others, 1968; Stocklin, 1977; Coleman, 1981). With few exceptions (Kashfi, 1976), earlier inter- 1968; Reyre and Mohafez, 1972; Berberian, 1977). Upper Devonian, pretations in which the ophiolite-chert sequences were autochthonous Carboniferous, and Permian basalt and diabase interbedded with clastic rocks affected by only minor faulting (Wells, 1969; Wilson, 1969) have and carbonate rocks overlie the unconformities along the Main Zagros now been supplanted by plate-tectonic models that involve late Paleozoic Thrust (Figs. 2A and 3) and record the initial development of the Isfahan or early Mesozoic continental rifting, Mesozoic sea-floor spreading, Late basin. Approximately 1 km of upper Carboniferous shallow-watet dolo- Cretaceous subduction, and Late Cretaceous or Tertiary island-arc/conti- mite and limestone is exposed in the Karkas Range in the eastern part of nent and/or continent/continent collision, ophiolite obduction, major the basin and is unconformably overlain by 700-800 m of Permian to thrust faulting, and continental suturing. The numerous studies of ophiolite Middle Triassic limestone and dolomite interbedded with and overlying formation and ofoiuction have, however, focused principally on regional red and white quartzite (Reyre and Mohafez, 1972). In the Abadeh Range plate reconstructions (Stocklin, 1968, 1974, 1977; Dewey and others, farther south, upper Carboniferous strata consist of 500 m of deep-water 1973; Stonely, 1974; Berberian and King, 1981) with little regard to black limestone and shale that contain reefs and reefal debris. They are diverse sedimentary basins that formed during Mesozoic and Cenozoic unconformably overlain by 2.5 km of platform and reef limestone of plate interactions. Several basins can, nevertheless, be recognized from the Permian age and 1 km of interbedded shale and carbonate and 600 m of limited data available from the Zagros Mountains, and the purpose of this dolomite of Late Permian to Middle Triassic age. Northwest of the Abadeh Range, upper Carboniferous strata are apparently absent, and several hundred metres of quartzose turbidites interbedded with basaltic •Present address: Geology Department, California State University-North- flows and tuffs and Permian limestones pinch out onto a horst block of ridge, Northridge, California 91330; and Mesa Verde Exploration and Production Services, 7026 Comstock Avenue, Whittier, California 90602. Precambrian or lower Paleozoic metamorphic rocks (Fig. 2A). Facies Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 97, p. 516-522,4 figs., May 1986. 516 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/97/5/516/3419449/i0016-7606-97-5-516.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 TETHYS-MARGINAL SEDIMENTARY BASINS, IRAN 517 patterns and thicknesses thus suggest that the late Paleozoic Isfahan basin The Isfahan basin probably originated by rifting of the early Paleo- deepened from a shoreline east of present outcrops to a submarine sill of zoic Arabian passive margin along northerly to northwesterly trends Precambrian basement rocks, which is presently exposed along the Main (Stocklin, 1974; Stonely, 1974; Falcon, 1967; Gealey, 1977). The wide Zagros Thrust. range in age of mafic volcanism (Late Devonian to Early Permian) sug- Upper Triassic through Upper Jurassic strata may unconformably gests that rifting may have been slow or episodic. Devonian-Carboniferous (Berberian and King, 1981) or conformably (Reyre and Mohafez, 1972; carbonates and quartzites are compatible with a rift valley/proto-oceanic Polyanskiy, 1976) overlie older strata in the Isfahan basin, but, without gulf interpretation, and the succeeding Permian carbonate/shale wedge doubt, they record a major change from carbonate to clastic deposition. that grades westward to a turbidite/basalt association is compatible with a Approximately 800 m of fine-grained deltaic sandstone and siltstone with passive-margin miogeocline interpretation. some coal in the central Karkas Range (Polyanskiy, 1976) reportedly The overlying middle Mesozoic clastic sequence most surely records thicken westward toward Isfahan to more than 2.5 km of greenish "some- an important tectonic event involving major uplift to the east of the Isfahan times quartzitic" sandstone (Reyre and Mohafez, 1972). To the north and basin. This event has been variously interpreted as rifting and breakup of west of Isfahan, the Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic section consists of the "Arabian-Iranian Platform" (Stocklin, 1968), microcontinent/micro- turbidite sandstone and shale (Isfahan Flysch) at least 2.5 km thick. These continent collision of the central Iran and Lut blocks (Fig. 1; Reyre and turbidites are interbedded with pillow lava, tuff, and metamorphic-clast Mohafez, 1972), and growth of a continental-margin magmatic arc as a breccia in westernmost outcrops. Quantitative compositional data for this result of northeastward subduction of Tethyan crust beneath the Rezayeh- widespread clastic sequence are not available, but both volcanic (Berber- Esfandagheh block (Berberian and King, 1981). Because the Mesozoic ian and King, 1981) and quartzose (Gansser, 1955) detritus have been position of central Iran and various other tectonic blocks is uncertain, as is reported. the timing of arc-related metamorphism in the Sanandaj-Siijan Ranges, The Isfahan basin was uplifted and strongly deformed in Late Juras- and because the provenance of the Isfahan Flysch remains speculative sic-Early Cretaceous time, concurrent with granitic plutonism, andesitic without modal compositional data, a tectonic interpretation of the Isfahan volcanism, and low-grade metamorphism in the northern part of the basin for Jurassic time is probably premature. Lithologic similarity to Sanandaj-Siijan Ranges. Gansser (1955), Stocklin (1968), and Reyre and folded and faulted deposits in slightly older basins in central Iran, however Mohafez (1972) noted no earlier significant deformation of the basin, (Reyre and Mohafez, 1972), favors a commonality of setting on the fore- whereas Berberian and King (1981) reinterpreted the age of some of the land side of a collisional orogen in eastern and/or northern
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