The Neotethyan Sanandaj-Sirjan zone of Iran as an archetype for passive margin-arc transitions

Abstract

The Sanandaj-Sirjan zone of Iran is a northwest trending orogenic belt immediately north of the Zagros suture, which represents the former position of the Neotethys Ocean. The zone contains the most extensive, best preserved record of key events in the formation and evolution of the Neotethys, from its birth in Late Paleozoic time through its demise during the mid-Tertiary collision of Arabia with Eurasia. The record includes rifting of continental fragments off of the northern margin of Gondwanaland, formation of facing passive continental margins, initiation of subduction along the northern margin, and progressive development of a continental magmatic arc. The latter two of these events are critical phases of the Wilson Cycle that, elsewhere in the world, are poorly preserved in the geologic record because of superimposed events. Our new synthesis reaffirms the similarity between this zone and various terranes to the north in Central Iran. Late Paleozoic rifting, preserved as A-type granites and accelerated subsidence, was followed by a phase of pronounced subsidence and shallow marine sedimentation in Permian through Triassic time, marking the formation and evolution of passive margins on both sides of the suture. Subduction and arc magmatism began in latest Triassic/Early Jurassic time, culminating at ~170 Ma. The extinction of arc magmatism in this zone, and its shift northeastward to form the subparallel Urumieh-Dokhtar arc, occurred diachronously along strike, in Late Cretaceous or Paleogene time. Post-Cretaceous uplift transformed the zone from a primarily marine borderland into a marine archipelago that persisted until mid-Tertiary time.

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