Neogene Tectono‐Stratigraphic Evolution of the Intermontane Tarom Basin: Insights Into Basin Filling and Plateau Building Processes Along the Northern Margin of the Iranian Plateau (Arabia‐Eurasia Collision Zone)
Abstract
The intermontane Tarom Basin of NW Iran (Arabia‐Eurasia collision zone) is located at the transition between the Iranian Plateau (IP) to the SW and the Alborz Mountains to the NE. This basin was filled by upper Cenozoic synorogenic red beds that retain first‐order information on the erosional history of adjacent topography, the vertical growth of the plateau margin and its orogen perpendicular expansion. Here, we perform a multidisciplinary study including magnetostratigraphy, sedimentology, geochronology and sandstone petrography on these red beds. Our data show that Eocene arc volcanism in the region terminated at 38‐36 Ma, while intrabasinal synorogenic sedimentation (endorheic conditions) occurred from at least 16.2 to <7.6 Ma, implying that the red beds are stratigraphically equivalent to the Upper Red Formation. After 7.6 Ma, the basin experienced intrabasinal deformation, uplift and erosion with the establishment of external drainage. Fluvial connectivity with the Caspian Sea, however, was interrupted by at least four episodes of basin aggradation. During endorheic conditions, the basin fill did not reach the elevation of the plateau interior and hence the Tarom Basin was never integrated into the plateau. Furthermore, our provenance data indicate that the northern margin of the basin (Alborz Mountains) experienced a greater magnitude of Miocene deformation and erosional exhumation than the southern one (IP margin). This agrees with recent Moho depth estimates, suggesting that crustal shortening and thickening cannot be responsible for the vertical growth of the northern margin of the IP, and hence surface uplift must have been driven by deep‐seated processes.
Additional Information
© 2021 American Geophysical Union. Issue Online: 15 March 2021; Version of Record online: 15 March 2021; Accepted manuscript online: 01 February 2021; Manuscript accepted: 19 January 2021; Manuscript revised: 14 January 2021; Manuscript received: 25 April 2020. This study is part of the PhD thesis of MP at the University of Roma Tre (PhD program Cycle XXXII) and was supported by the PhD School of Roma Tre, the MIUR (Ministry of Education University and Research: Grant Rita Levi Montalcini and Prin_2017 20177BX42Z to PB, and Prin_2015 20158A9CBM_002 to MM), the DFG (German Science Foundation: grants DFG BA 4420/2‐1 and BA 4420/2‐2 to PB) and the DAAD (German Academy Research Service, grant to GH). The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest. Data Availability Statement: Software and analyzed data of paleomagnetic samples used to produce the results in this work are available at https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/n5z4h9dy6x/2/ and DOI:10.17632/n5z4h9dy6x.2. We thank the Editor Taylor Schildgen and the Associate Editor Derya Guerer for their assistance and suggestions and we are grateful to Renas Koshnaw and three anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments. The authors would also like to thank Masoud Biralvand and Mahmood Fallah for helping with the logistic during the field work.Attached Files
Published - 2020TC006254.pdf
Supplemental Material - 2020tc006254-sup-0001-supporting_information_si-s01.docx
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 107883
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20210202-150459494
- Roma Tre University
- 20177BX42Z
- Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR)
- 20158A9CBM_002
- Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR)
- BA 4420/2-1
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- BA 4420/2-2
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)
- Created
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2021-02-03Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field