--> ABSTRACT: Paleobasin Analysis and Tectonic Framework Development of Southern Zagros Basin, Interpreted from Landsat 4 Thematic Mapper Image, by Assad Iranpanah; #91043 (2011)

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Paleobasin Analysis and Tectonic Framework Development of Southern Zagros Basin, Interpreted from Landsat 4 Thematic Mapper Image

Assad Iranpanah

Detailed lineament maps produced with the digitally enhanced Landsat 4 thematic mapper in conjunction with field data provide new information on structural relations in the southern Zagros basin. Three major parallel lineaments are from north to south, Qatar-Kazern, Razak, and Oman. These lineaments trend approximately N17°E and subdivide the Zagros basin into northern, central, and southern segments. The study area is enclosed by the Razak and Oman lineaments.

Piercement salt domes (Precambrian salt) are abundant within the southern Zagros basin, absent east of the Oman lineament, and scarce in the area west of the Razak lineament. This salt dome distribution and the N17°E trend suggest that these lineaments are surface manifestations of boundaries of basement crustal blocks that have been reactivated periodically since the Precambrian.

The northern extension of this Precambrian basin is marked by salt domes (Precambrian salt) along the Oman lineament, located in the Kerman region 400 km north of Minab. Along the eastern boundary, at the juncture of the southern Zagros basin and the western Makran Ranges, the trend of fold axes changes from east-west to north-south. The western basin boundary is characterized by a gradual change in the trend of the fold axis from east-west to northwest-southeast.

This study provides useful information for subsurface interpretations, which will benefit hydrocarbon exploration. The Razak and Oman lineaments enclose a highly productive area, and separate the southern Zagros basin from less productive areas to the west and from a nonproductive region to the east where chromite and iron deposits are common. These findings suggest that lineaments may serve as an exploration guide for hydrocarbons and economic mineral deposits, and as a model for developing the tectonic framework of the southern Zagros basin.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91043©1986 AAPG Annual Convention, Atlanta, Georgia, June 15-18, 1986.