Structuralparagenetic and kinematic methods of tectonophysics are applied to study earthquake focal mechanisms of the Zagros system. Nodal planes of focal mechanisms are identified as L, L′ and R, R′shears by the first method, whereby coordinates of principal stress axes P, T and N (i.e. in tectonophysics, σ 1 , σ 3 and σ 2 , if σ 1 ≥ σ 2 ≥ σ 3) are defined. 'Working' nodal planes corresponding to activated ruptures are revealed. Axes of the main normal stresses are combined into local groups on the basis of the kinematic identity of planes of seismogenic ruptures (Figure 2). The second method is applied to construct stereograms of the main axes P, T and N, to construct and interpret stereograms of vectors of seismogenic shifts (Figure 3), and to more clearly define coordinates of principal axes σ 1 , σ 3 и σ 2. As evidenced by their comparison, coordi nates of the principal axes obtained by the two tectonophysical methods are well coincident (see Figure 2). Five groups of seismogenesis are distinguished; they differ in combination of deformation regimes and kinematic conditions. Locations are determined of the areas wherein earthquake foci of similar parameters are located. This means that seismogenic zones are distinguished; structural and kinematic characteristics of such zones are determined by parameters of stereographic models of corresponding types of seismogenesis (Figures 4 and 5). It is established that the region is dominated by shear and upthrust deformation regimes due to regional submeridional compression and SWNE compression (see Figures 4 and 5). Submerid ional subhorizontal compression is explained by the northward movement of the Arabian plate, and SWNE compression is explained by divergent processes within the limits of the Red Sea rift. The time pattern of the seismogenic processes from 1979 to 2001 shows that submeridional compression and SWNE compression are associated with different deep mecha nisms. Processes of SENW compression, which are observed in the northern part of the Arabian plate, are caused by its in teraction with the Eastern Black Sea microplate.

Geothermochronologic data outline the temperature‐deformation‐time evolution of the Muskol and Shatput gneiss domes and their hanging walls in the Central Pamir. Prograde metamorphism started before ~35 Ma and peaked at ~23–20 Ma, reflecting top‐to‐ ~N thrust‐sheet and fold‐nappe emplacement that tripled the thickness of the upper ~7–10 km of the Asian crust. Multimethod thermochronology traces cooling through ~700–100°C between ~22 and 12 Ma due to exhumation along dome‐bounding normal‐sense shear zones. Synkinematic minerals date normal sense shear‐zone deformation at ~22–17 Ma. Age‐versus‐elevation relationships and paleoisotherm spacing imply exhumation at ≥3 km/Myr. South of the domes, Mesozoic granitoids record slow cooling and/or constant temperature throughout the Paleogene and enhanced cooling (7–31°C/Myr) starting between ~23 and 12 Ma and continuing today. Integrating the Central Pamir data with those of the East (Chinese) Pamir Kongur Shan and Muztaghata domes, and with the South Pamir Shakhdara dome, implies (i) regionally distributed, Paleogene crustal thickening; (ii) Pamir‐wide gravitational collapse of thickened crust starting at ~23–21 Ma during ongoing India‐Asia convergence; and (iii) termination of doming and resumption of shortening following northward propagating underthrusting of the Indian cratonic lithosphere at ≥12 Ma. Westward lateral extrusion of Pamir Plateau crust into the Hindu Kush and the Tajik depression accompanied all stages. Deep‐seated processes, e.g., slab breakoff, crustal foundering, and underthrusting of buoyant lithosphere, governed transitional phases in the Pamir, and likely the Tibet crust.

New structural, geochronological, and petrological data highlight which crustal sections of the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary in Guatemala and Honduras accommodated the large-scale sinistral offset. We develop the chronological and kinematic framework for these interactions and test for Palaeozoic to Recent geological correlations among the Maya Block, the Chortís Block, and the terranes of southern Mexico and the northern Caribbean. Our principal findings relate to how the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary partitioned deformation; whereas the southern Maya Block and the southern Chortís Block record the Late Cretaceous–Early Cenozoic collision and eastward sinistral translation of the Greater Antilles arc, the northern Chortís Block preserves evidence for northward stepping of the plate boundary with the translation of this block to its present position since the Late Eocene. Collision and translation are recorded in the ophiolite and subduction–accretion complex (North El Tambor complex), the continental margin (Rabinal and Chuacús complexes), and the Laramide foreland fold–thrust belt of the Maya Block as well as the overriding Greater Antilles arc complex. The Las Ovejas complex of the northern Chortís Block contains a significant part of the history of the eastward migration of the Chortís Block; it constitutes the southern part of the arc that facilitated the breakaway of the Chortís Block from the Xolapa complex of southern Mexico. While the Late Cretaceous collision is spectacularly sinistral transpressional, the Eocene–Recent translation of the Chortís Block is by sinistral wrenching with transtensional and transpressional episodes. Our reconstruction of the Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic evolution of the North American–Caribbean Plate boundary identified Proterozoic to Mesozoic connections among the southern Maya Block, the Chortís Block, and the terranes of southern Mexico: (i) in the Early–Middle Palaeozoic, the Acatlán complex of the southern Mexican Mixteca terrane, the Rabinal complex of the southern Maya Block, the Chuacús complex, and the Chortís Block were part of the Taconic–Acadian orogen along the northern margin of South America; (ii) after final amalgamation of Pangaea, an arc developed along its western margin, causing magmatism and regional amphibolite–facies metamorphism in southern Mexico, the Maya Block (including Rabinal complex), the Chuacús complex and the Chortís Block. The separation of North and South America also rifted the Chortís Block from southern Mexico. Rifting ultimately resulted in the formation of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous oceanic crust of the South El Tambor complex; rifting and spreading terminated before the Hauterivian (c. 135 Ma). Remnants of the southwestern Mexican Guerrero complex, which also rifted from southern Mexico, remain in the Chortís Block (Sanarate complex); these complexes share Jurassic metamorphism. The South El Tambor subduction–accretion complex was emplaced onto the Chortís Block probably in the late Early Cretaceous and the Chortís Block collided with southern Mexico. Related arc magmatism and high-T/low-P metamorphism (Taxco–Viejo–Xolapa arc) of the Mixteca terrane spans all of southern Mexico. The Chortís Block shows continuous Early Cretaceous–Recent arc magmatism.

[1] Cenozoic gneiss domes-exposing middle-lower crustal rocks-cover~30% of the surface exposure of the Pamir, western India-Asia collision zone; they allow an unparalleled view into the deep crust of the Asian plate. We use titanite, monazite, and zircon U/Th-Pb, mica Ar/ 39 Ar, zircon and apatite fission track, and zircon (U-Th)/He ages to constrain the exhumation history of the~350 × 90 km Shakhdara-Alichur dome, southwestern Pamir. Doming started at 21-20 Ma along the Gunt top-to-N normal-shear zone of the northern Shakhdara dome. The bulk of the exhumation occurred by~NNW-ward extrusion of the footwall of the crustal-scale South Pamir normal-shear zone along the southern Shakhdara dome boundary. Footwall extrusion was active from~18-15 Ma to~2 Ma at~10 mm/yr slip and with vertical exhumation rates of 1-3 mm/yr; it resulted in up to 90 km~N-S extension, coeval with~N-S convergence between India and Asia. Erosion rates were 0.3-0.5 mm/yr within the domes and 0.1-0.3 mm/yr in the horst separating the Shakhdara and Alichur domes and in the southeastern Pamir plateau; rates were highest along the dome axis in the southern part of the Shakhdara dome. Incision along the major drainages was up to 1.0 mm/yr. Thermal modeling suggests geothermal gradients as high as 60°C/km along the trace of the South Pamir shear zone and their strong N-S variation across the dome; the gradients relaxed to ≤40-45°C/km since the end of doming.

The World Stress Map Project compiles a global database of contemporary tectonic stress information of the Earth's crust. Early releases of the World Stress Map Project demonstrated the existence of first‐order (plate‐scale) stress fields controlled by plate boundary forces and second‐order (regional) stress fields controlled by major intraplate stress sources such as mountain belts and zones of widespread glacial rebound. The 2005 release of the World Stress Map Project database provides, for some areas, high data density that enables us to investigate third‐order (local) stress field variations, and the forces controlling them such as active faults, local inclusions, detachment horizons, and density contrasts. These forces act as major controls on the stress field orientations when the magnitudes of the horizontal stresses are close to isotropic. We present and discuss examples for Venezuela, Australia, Romania, Brunei, western Europe, and southern Italy where a substantial increase of data records demonstrates some of the additional factors controlling regional and local stress patterns.