The Central Basin of the Iran Plateau is between the geologically better-known regions of the Zagros and Alborz Mountains. Hydrocarbon exploration in the Central Basin has revealed the details of the late Eocene-Holocene evolution of the basin based on seismic refl ection data, geological fi eld work, basin modeling, and satellite interpretation. The multistage basin history commenced with broad sag-type subsidence and isolated normal faults during Oligocene-early Miocene time. It evolved to an extensional or transtensional basin in the early-middle Miocene, with as much as 4-5 km of Upper Red Formation section being deposited in some parts of the basin during this stage. The upper part of the Upper Red Formation is associated with a change to transpressional deformation, with the development of thrusts and folds. This latest (probably middle and/or late MioceneHolocene) deformation is transpressional, and includes a mixture of basementinvolved strike-slip and thrust faults and thin-skinned folding and thrusting detached on Oligocene evaporites. Local detachment levels higher in the stratigraphy also exist. Subsidence in mini-foredeep basins and strike-slip fault bounded basins occurred during this stage, and several kilometers of Upper Red Formation were deposited in the main depocenters. Northwest-southeast-to north-northwest-south-southeaststriking dextral strike-slip to compressional faults dominate the area, with subordinate east-west and north-south fault orientations also present. These different fault sets combine in places to form major strike-slip duplex geometries. The Eocene volcanic belt (Urumieh-Dokhtar zone) along the southern margin of the basin forms a chain of massifs as much as 3 km high, the outcrops of which were exhumed by movement along major thrusts from 5-6 km depth between the middle Miocene and present day. The Central Basin-Urumieh-Dokhtar zone forms a

No abstract