Tectonothermal constraints on the early-stage orogenic wedge formation along the Arabia-Eurasia suture zone in the NW Zagros orogenic belt

Deep earth geodynamic processes shape surface geology, topography, and the earth’s crust evolution with consequences on erosion, deposition, climate, and biogeography. This research investigates the early-stage growth of the NW Zagros belt in the Kurdistan region of Iraq after the early Oligocene Arabia-Eurasia collision and the geologic signatures of potential SE-ward propagating Neotethys slab tearing. We will test two end-member hypotheses: (i) the slab has already detached, causing subsidence before slab tearing, followed by rapid regional uplift in the vicinity of the suture zone afterward, or (ii) the slab is still attached, causing no pulse of significant hinterland uplift but continuous regional lower plate subsidence. In the NW Zagros belt, where the Arabian and Eurasian plates are sutured along the Main Zagros fault, allochthonous thrust sheets of ophiolitic and arc-related terranes were emplaced onto post-collisional autochthonous units of clastic and lower-middle Miocene shallow marine carbonate rocks, now at ~1-1.5 km elevation. The allochthonous thrust sheets host pre-collisional acidic and mafic intrusions that provide exhumation rate constraints throughout collision, whereas the post-collisional marine carbonate rocks attest to a significant suture zone subsidence and uplift. Thermal history modeling of bedrock samples using zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometers suggests an early uplift during ~30-25 Ma, with most apatite (U-Th)/He samples being reset during ~15-10 Ma. To quantitatively determine the depositional age of the lower-middle Miocene marine carbonate rocks, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr isotope chronstratigraphy will be conducted. Furthermore, the isopach maps of the middle and upper Miocene foreland deposits show a notable shift in the depocenter axis and an enhanced subsidence toward the SE, concurrent with the arrival of the Afar plume to the suture zone in the NW. These preliminary results argue for the formation of the NW Zagros orogenic wedge as early as ~30-25 Ma, followed by suture zone subsidence during the early-middle Miocene and then uplift again during ~15-10 Ma, possibly due to initiation of Neotethys slab-tearing and its subsequent propagation along the suture zone from the NW to the SE. These findings have implications for investigating the role of the Arabia-Eurasia land bridge formation and deformation on vertebrate distribution and paleoclimate response to orographic barrier development since the late Miocene in the Middle East.