New GSA Today science investigates lithosphere of the Central Iranian plateau
July GSA Today cover image: Khosoumi Mountains in the southern part of the Chapedony metamorphic core complex of Central Iran. The high mountains in the back are represented by Eocene plutonic rocks of the footwall unit. Eocene volcaniclastic rocks in the foreground form the hanging-wall unit. Credit: Franz Neubauer of the University of Salzburg and Fariba Kargaranbafghi of the University of Yazd, and GSA Today.
The core complex is located within a continental rift and was exhumed at a rate of approx. 0.75 to 1.3 km per million years during the main phase of oceanic subduction of the Arabian plate beneath the Central Iranian block between ca. 30 and 49 million years ago.
The authors indicate that lithosphere and continental crust were thinned beneath regions of surface extension. The thinning of the underlying lithosphere appears to have been compensated by hot asthenosphere, as indicated by low seismic velocities in the Central Iranian block.
The authors conclude that the development of the core complex involved lithospheric removal associated with extension and upwelling of hot asthenosphere. Later processes, like slab break-off and associated uplift of the Central Iranian plateau, may have modified the structure.
ARTICLE
Lithospheric thinning associated with formation of a metamorphic core complex and subsequent formation of the Iranian plateau
Fariba Kargaranbafghi, Dept. Geography and Geology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria, and Dept. of Geology, University of Yazd, Yazd, Iran, fkargaran@yazd.ac.ir; and Franz Neubauer, Dept. Geography and Geology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria, FranzNeubauer@sbg.ac.at. GSA Today, v. 25, no. 7, p. 4-8; doi: 10.1130/GSATG229A.1.
GSA Today articles are open access online; for a print copy, please contact Kea Giles. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GSA Today in articles published.
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