The Effects of Mid-Cimmerian Event in North East of Iran

Abstract

The effects of the Mid-Cimmerian event in the Binalud Mountains can be investigated in the Mashhad Phyllite around Mashhad and in the Aghdarband Group in the Aghdarband area. In the Eastern Binalud, this event acted in prehnite-pumpellyite to lower greenschist facies and influenced the Shemshak group, which deposited as a post Early Cimmerian molasse blanket in a Rhaetian-Lias back-arc basin. The result is transformation of these sediments into the slate, phyllite and metasandstone. Tight to open folds, axial plane foliations and crenulation folds with NW-SE trending are the Mid-Cimmerian deformational structures. Due to the lower grade of metamorphism and deformation, there isn't any important effect of this event on the rocks, which were previously deformed and metamorphosed by the Early Cimmerian event. The exhumation and erosion of deformed rocks by the Early and Mid-Cimmerian events generated the intramontane basins in the internal part of the eastern Binalud Mountains. In the Aghdarband area, this event is characterized by folding of the Sina Formation from the Aghdarband Group, which is unconformably overlain by the Kashafroud Formation. Abstract The kinematic analysis of the Koushk-e-Nosrat Fault (striking WNW-ESE) at north Saveh city indicates that since a time after early Miocene it has been inverted from dextral strike-slip (and reverse-dextral-oblique slip) to reverse-sinistral (and sinistral strike-slip) displacement. The Kinematic evidences of right-lateral strike-slip displacement are: 1) Generation of the Koushk-e-Nosrat pull-apart basin along the bended segment of the fault in north Saveh city where a thin sequence of the Qom Formation (late- Oligocene to early Miocene) has been deposited in this narrow basin. 2) Shear bands and other kinematic indicators of right-lateral strike-slip and reverse-dextral-oblique slip displacements exist in the fault zone. 3) Synthetic right-lateral and antithetic left-lateral strike-slip faults are observed in wall damage zones around the main fault zone. The evidences of left-lateral strike-slip displacements after slip sense inversion are: sinistral- reverse faults, pure reverse faults, sinistral strike-slip faults and folds are generated in the Koushk-e-Nosrat Fault zone. The younger left-lateral reverse kinematic of the Koushk-e-Nosrat Fault is another significant evidence for the main role of the left-lateral reverse faults in deformation of the Qom-Saveh district in NW part of the Central Iran Block that has been tested before by structural and morphological kinematics of other major faults in the area like the Ipak (south Boin-zahrah) and Alborz (north Qom) Faults and seismological evidence of earthquake in the Boin-zahra areas.