The Zagros Mountains extend over 1800 km from Kurdistan in N-Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz in Iran and is one of the world’s most promising regions for the future hydrocarbon exploration. Orogeny evolved through the Late Cretaceous to Miocene collision between the Arabian and Eurasian plates, during which time the Neotethys oceanic basin was closed. Still active shortening and deformation is partitioned in S-SW directed folds and thrusts and NW-SE to N-S trending dextral strike slip faults.
This session focuses on the geodynamic evolution of the Zagros Mountains including various field- and model-based aspects such as the evolution of the foreland basin, the geometry, kinematics, tectonic style and sequence of deformation in the Zagros fold-and-thrust belt, magmatism-metamorphism-exhumation of hinterland, seismicity and deep crustal structures as well as surface processes and landscape morphology related to climatic, eustatic and tectonic perturbations.