Late Miocene–early Pliocene tectonic to erosional exhumation in the northwest of the Arabia–Eurasia collision zone

Madanipour, Saeed

doi:10.1002/esp.5583

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…The Caspian Sea-level fluctuations under the significant influence of tectonic and the subsidiary role of climate impacted the exhumation and erosion pattern across the western Alborz from ∼10 to ∼2.8 Ma (Figure 7c). Moreover, Madanipour (2023) proposes that exhumation has been dominant erosional process in the west Alborz and Talesh mountain ranges during the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene. The Quaternary climate changes played an important role in decreasing exhumation rates between ∼2.8 and ∼2 Ma.…”

Section: The Northern Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

Tectonics, Base‐Level Fluctuations, and Climate Impact on the Eocene to Present‐Day Erosional Pattern of the Arabia‐Eurasia Collision Zone (NNW Iranian Plateau and West Alborz Mountains)

et al. 2023

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The NNW Iranian Plateau and west Alborz within the Arabia‐Eurasia collision zone are characterized by three main tectono‐stratigraphic zones, crosscut by the Qezel‐Owzan River (QOR) Basin. The interplay between present‐day deformation and climate, which control the landscape evolution of the region, is still poorly constrained. We addressed this gap by measuring millennial‐scale erosion rates from 10Be‐concentration in the QOR sands along with topographic/climatic metrics analyses. Results reveal low erosion rates in the Plateau and relatively high in the west Alborz. The regional consistency of topographic parameters with geomorphology suggests that they control sediment fluxes in the Plateau, while the surface uplift, active thrust‐faulting, and shallow crustal seismicity in the west Alborz are the main controlling factors. Climate has a secondary role on erosion rates. Furthermore, we calculated exhumation rates from published thermochronometric AFT/AHe ages to determine their relationship with 10Be short‐term data. Results imply that the exhumation rates increased slightly in the Plateau and west Alborz from ∼26 to ∼10 Ma, simultaneous with hard collision processes between the Arabia‐Eurasia. This trend accelerated from ∼10 to ∼2.8 Ma due to the isolation of the Caspian Sea and extreme base‐level fall. From ∼2.8 to ∼2 Ma, base‐level rise occurred under climate influence, and erosion rates decreased. Millennial‐scale data show the erosion rate decreased from ∼2 Ma to the Present‐day, which is attributed to the change in deformation style and fault kinematics from fold/thrusting to mainly strike‐slip faulting. The significantly lower erosion rates in the Plateau compared to west Alborz suggest a relatively stable plateau surface.

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Section: The Northern Zonementioning

confidence: 99%

Tectonics, Base‐Level Fluctuations, and Climate Impact on the Eocene to Present‐Day Erosional Pattern of the Arabia‐Eurasia Collision Zone (NNW Iranian Plateau and West Alborz Mountains)

et al. 2023

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“…Moreover, the presence of Alborz, Talesh, and Bitlis-Zagros orographic barriers (Figure 1a) reduces precipitation in the plateau interior and prevent efficient headward erosion of external drainages. In contrary, the high local relief on the flanks of these orographic barriers shows that higher erosion and sedimentary rates are confined on the plateau margins (Ballato et al, 2015;Kaveh Firouz, 2018;Kaveh-Firouz et al, 2023a;Madanipour, 2023;Madanipour et al, 2013;Paknia et al, 2021aPaknia et al, , 2021bRezaeian et al, 2012), where precipitation is higher than interior plateau. Exhumation and uplift rates in west and central Alborz were positively correlated with the subduction of a thick buoyant continental crust under Alborz (e.g., Axen et al, 2001;Guest et al, 2006).…”

Section: Chi Maps and Plotsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Landscape evolution in orogenic plateaus: Insights from quantitative morphotectonic analysis of the Turkish–Iranian Plateau and Caucasus regions

Kaveh‐Firouz,

Burg,

Giachetta

2023

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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To investigate the recent landscape evolution of the orogenic Turkish–Iranian Plateau (TIP) and the Lesser/Greater Caucasus ranges, we perform a quantitative analysis of topography and drainage networks at a regional scale. This analysis focuses on climatic–topographic swath profiles, local relief distribution, longitudinal river profiles, normalized channel steepness index (ksn), paleo‐river profile, and chi analysis (χ). In general, we find that the evolution of topographic relief and river networks are locally controlled by Late Cenozoic volcanism, contrasts in rock strength, and neotectonic activity along regional tectonic structures. However, our results show that the influence of these factors on the landscape evolution of the Greater Caucasus is significantly different from the Lesser Caucasus and TIP. This study shows that a combination of enhanced aridity, rapid uplift of orographic barriers along the TIP margins, and exposure of resistant rock types associated with the regional volcanic activity resulted in low‐relief plateau and the Lesser Caucasus surfaces that are preserved in the upper/middle Kura–Arax and Qezel‐Owzan river catchments. High local relief in the flanks of the Greater Caucasus and west Alborz, downstream increase in channel steepness, and perturbations in the χ plots of the three main rivers indicate that the topography is in a transient state.We reconstruct the paleo‐river profiles from the relict section of the upper Kura–Arax and Qezel‐Owzan rivers and show that the last drastic fall of the Caspian base‐level, which occurred during the Late Miocene–Early Pliocene, can explain the incision of ~500–1000 m gorges (i.e., Amardos) below major knickpoints. Furthermore, local cross‐divide differences of the χ parameter reveal that disequilibrium in the plan‐form geometry of the drainage networks, attributed to the upstream migration of the regional knickpoints towards the plateau interior and integration of plateau areas into the external fluvial system.

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“…Crust is 45 to 65 km thick in the Zagros foldbelt and the Sanandaj-Sirjan Zone (Paul et al, 2010;Motavalli-Anbaran et al, 2011;Jiménez-Munt et al, 2012;Tunini et al, 2014) and 35 to 40 km thick in the Alborz and Central Iran areas (Paul et al, 2010;Motavalli-Anbaran et al, 2011;Jiménez-Munt et al, 2012;Ballato et al, 2013). "Soft" and "hard" stages of continental collision are also recognized in the Alborz and Talesh Mountains at the northern margin of the collision zone from stratigraphic, structural and thermochronometric data-sets (Ballato et al, 2011;Madanipour et al, 2017), and over a much wider area in Arabia -southern Eurasia (McQuarrie et al, 2003;Allen et al, 2004;Guest et al, 2007;Ballato et al, 2008Ballato et al, , 2010Mothereau et al, 2011Mothereau et al, , 2012Madanipour et al, 2013;Naeimi et al, 2021 and2023). Regional uplift of the collision zone, especially in the Central Iran plateau, was due to the upward movement of hot mantle in response to slab roll-back.…”

Section: Final Collision In the Middle Miocenementioning

confidence: 98%

“…1). Estimates of the time of the beginning of continental collision vary from Late Cretaceous (60-40 Ma) (Haynes and McQuillan, 1974;Stöcklin, 1974, Berberian andKing, 1981;Alavi, 1994;Ghasemi and Talbot, 2003;Sun et al, 2023); to late Eocene -Oligocene (35-25 Ma) (Hempton, 1985;Jolivet and Faccenna, 2000;Hessami et al, 2001;Agard et al, 2011;Horton et al, 2008;Ballato et al, 2010); and into the Miocene -Pliocene (27-5 Ma) (Şengör and Kidd, 1979;Philip et al, 1989;Axen et al, 2001;McQuarrie et al, 2003;Guest et al, 2006;Mouthereau et al, 2011;Mouthereau, 2012;McQuarrie, 2004McQuarrie, , 2013Madanipour et al, 2013 andDarin and Umhoefer, 2022;Madanipour, 2023). Cenozoic deformation related to this collisional phase has been documented from structural, stratigraphic and chronometric analyses in the Central Alborz and Caucasus foldbelts (Axen et al, 2001;Guest et al, 2006;Vincent et al, 2007;Vincent et al, 2011;Avdeev and Niemi, 2011;Rezaeian et al, 2012, Ballato et al, 2013Madanipour et al, 2013 and.…”

Section: The Geotectonic Development Of the Arabia -Eurasia Collision...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cenozoic deformation related to this collision has been documented from the tectonostratigraphic record in different parts of the orogenic system (Axen et al, 2001;Guest et al, 2006;Vincent et al, 2007;Vincent et al, 2011;Avdeev and Niemi, 2010;Rezaeian et al, 2012, Ballato et al, 2013. The Arabia-Eurasia collision is generally believed to have begun with a change in kinematics from an extensional to a contractional regime and the termination of arc magmatism at the Eocene -Oligocene boundary at ~36 Ma (Berberian, 1983;Allen et al, 2003;Guest et al, 2006Guest et al, , 2007Allen and 2008;Yassaghi and Madanipour, 2008;Ballato et al, 2010, Kargaranbafghi et al, 2011Mouthereau et al, 2012;Rezaeian et al, 2012;Madanipour et al, 2013;Naeimi et al, 2021 and2023). On the Azeri side of the northern Talesh Mountains, the end of extension-related rifting and volcanism and the onset of compression is recorded as a transition into upper Eocene -lower Oligocene successions dominated by fine-grained turbidites and hemipelagic sediments with slope instability structures (Vincent et al, 2005).…”

Section: Late Eocene To Early Oligocene Onset Of Continental Collisio...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Arabia – Eurasia Collision Zone in Iran: Tectonostratigraphic and Structural Synthesis

Madanipour,

Najafi,

Nozaem

et al. 2024

Journal of Petroleum Geology

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The Arabia – Eurasia collision zone in the central part of the Alpine – Himalayan orogenic system has had a complex deformation history since the Palaeozoic. In Iran, the collision zone consists of the Alborz‐Talesh, Kopeh Dagh and Zagros foldbelts and the intervening Central Iran area. In this review paper, we summarize the structural architecture and tectonostratigraphic characteristics of these domains and attempt to correlate regional deformation events between them. The results show that six regional‐scale deformation phases can be recognized and correlated in Iran over a time interval extending from the Late Palaeozoic to the Late Cenozoic.Late Palaeozoic rifting in northern Gondwana and subsequent oceanic spreading resulted in the separation of the Central and North Iran blocks from the Arabian Platform. These blocks later converged and collided with the southern margin of Eurasia due to the subduction of the intervening PalaeoTethys lithosphere (“Cimmerian orogeny”: Late Triassic). The convergent setting resulted in the initial development of the Alborz‐Talesh foldbelt in present‐day northern Iran, while extensional basins developed in the forebulge area in Central Iran. Continuing northward subduction of NeoTethyan oceanic lithosphere at the southern Eurasia margin produced Early Cretaceous back‐arc extension and associated volcanism in Central Iran and the Alborz‐Talesh area to the north. A phase of compressional deformation in the Late Cretaceous was related to the collision of a series of microcontinents derived from Northern Gondwana, including the Ercinjan and Bitlis massifs, with the Central Iran block, and is recorded in the Alborz‐Talesh foldbelt and in Central Iran. Further back‐arc extension in the late Paleocene – Eocene was accompanied by pervasive volcanism and volcaniclastic sedimentation throughout northern and Central Iran. The final closure of NeoTethys and convergence between the Arabian and Eurasian Plates evolved through phases of early Oligocene “soft” collision and middle Miocene “hard” collision. This was accompanied by thrusting in the internal parts of the Zagros foldbelt and by folding and subordinate thrusting in the more external parts, with related development of the flexural Mesopotamian Basin in the foreland to the SW.

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Late Miocene–early Pliocene tectonic to erosional exhumation in the northwest of the Arabia–Eurasia collision zone

Cited by 6 publications

References 72 publications

Tectonics, Base‐Level Fluctuations, and Climate Impact on the Eocene to Present‐Day Erosional Pattern of the Arabia‐Eurasia Collision Zone (NNW Iranian Plateau and West Alborz Mountains)

Tectonics, Base‐Level Fluctuations, and Climate Impact on the Eocene to Present‐Day Erosional Pattern of the Arabia‐Eurasia Collision Zone (NNW Iranian Plateau and West Alborz Mountains)

Landscape evolution in orogenic plateaus: Insights from quantitative morphotectonic analysis of the Turkish–Iranian Plateau and Caucasus regions

The Arabia – Eurasia Collision Zone in Iran: Tectonostratigraphic and Structural Synthesis

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