Neogene-Quaternary strike-slip changes on the Robat Karim fault zone, North of Central Iran

Authors

Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Imam Khomeini International Universuty, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

The Robat Karim Fault (RKF) is a NW-trending structure in the northern part of the Central Iranian block that has experienced a multiple displacement history reflective of the late Miocene to present tectonic in northern Iran. In the fault zone, WNW, NNW and NNE trending faults are mapped in addition to folds and tectonic-sedimentary features such as growth strata and angular unconformity. According to geometric relations between strike-slip along with reverse and normal faults, strike-slip inversion is proposed for the RKF. Syntectonic sedimentation signs such as growth strata and the angular unconformity in the Late Miocene-Pliocene deposits constraint the time of sinistral strike-slip deformation of the RKF. However, dextral strike-slip deformation of the RKF affected Quaternary sediments. Sinistral strike-slip movement along the RKF is may be caused by orocline flexure of the Alborz Mountains which itself reflected collision of Central Iran with the south Caspian and the Turan blocks. Dextral movement along the RKF as well as the other NNW faults of Central Iran are the result of the last stage of indentation of Arabia in the Pliocene.

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