Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T11:26:24.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neogene salt in SW Iran and its interaction with Zagros folding

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2011

I. ABDOLLAHIE FARD ,
M. SEPEHR  and
S. SHERKATI
I. ABDOLLAHIE FARD
Affiliation:
Exploration Directorate, National Iranian Oil Co., Seoul Ave, Sheykh Bahaie Sq., Tehran 19395-6669, Iran
M. SEPEHR
Affiliation:
Exploration Directorate, National Iranian Oil Co., Seoul Ave, Sheykh Bahaie Sq., Tehran 19395-6669, Iran
S. SHERKATI*
Affiliation:
Exploration Directorate, National Iranian Oil Co., Seoul Ave, Sheykh Bahaie Sq., Tehran 19395-6669, Iran
*
*Author for correspondence: ssherkati@hotmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present and use seismic images to constrain possible scenarios for the evolution of the Middle Miocene Gachsaran Formation in the Central Iranian Zagros during the Neogene folding. This evaporitic sequence plays an important role in sealing the Oligocene–Miocene Asmari reservoirs in the Dezful Embayment and offshore regions. It was deposited in the flexural basin south of the Mountain Front Fault, during the progressive southwestward propagation of the Zagros folding. Its thickness changes very rapidly from several hundred to more than 4000 m. This thickness variation is related to faulting, folding and flow. Seismic and subsurface data show that the Gachsaran evaporite sequence is a major disharmonic level in the Dezful Embayment and shallow, molassic synclines often overlie anticlinal axes at depth. The lithological composition of the Gachsaran Formation is mainly a combination of salt, shale and anhydrite, which have a high interval velocity contrast. Anomalous velocity behaviours of these sedimentary units after deformation affect the seismic quality of the surrounding area, especially the southern flank of the main anticline structures.

Keywords

ZagrosNeogenesaltDezful Embaymentseismic
Type
THE ZAGROS FOLD-THRUST BELT: FOLDS AND FRACTURES
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 148 , Issue 5-6: THEMATIC ISSUE: Geodynamic evolution of the Zagros , November 2011 , pp. 854 - 867
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Mohammad Sepehr passed away suddenly of a heart attack in 2009 during a field trip.

References

Abdollahie Fard, I., Braathen, A., Mokhtari, M. & Alavi, S. A. 2006. Interaction of the Zagros Fold-thrust belt and the Arabian type, deep-seated folds in the Abadan Plain and the Dezful Embayment, SW Iran. Petroleum Geoscience 12, 347–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agard, P., Omrani, J., Jolivet, L. & Mouthereau, F. 2005. Convergence history across Zagros (Iran): constraints from collisional and earlier deformation. International Journal of Earth Sciences 94: 401–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ahmadhadi, F., Lacombe, O. & Daniel, J. M. 2007. Early reactivation of basement faults in Central Zagros (SW Iran): evidence from pre-folding fracture populations in the Asmari Formation and Lower Tertiary paleogeography. In Thrust Belts and Foreland Basins: From fold kinematics to hydrocarbon systems (eds Lacombe, O., Lavé, J., Vergés, J. & Roure, F.), pp. 205–28. Springer-VerlagCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahroudi, A. & Koyi, H. 2004. Tectono-sedimentary framework of the Gachsaran Formation in the Zagros foreland basin. Marine and Petroleum Geology 21, 1295–310CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berberian, M. 1995. Master “blind” thrust faults hidden under the Zagros folds: active basement tectonics and surface morphotectonics. Tectonophysics 241, 193–224CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berberian, M. & King, G. C. P. 1981. Towards a paleogeography and tectonic evolution of Iran. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 18, 210–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonini, M. 2003. Detachment folding, fold amplification, and diapirism in thrust wedge experiments. Tectonics 22, TC1065; doi:10.1029/2002TC001458, 26 ppCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edgell, H. S. 1996. Salt tectonism in the Persian Gulf Basin. In Salt Tectonics (eds Alsop, I., Blundell, D., & Davison, I.), pp. 129–51. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 100Google Scholar
Hessami, K., Nilforoushan, F. & Talbot, C. J. 2006. Active deformation within the Zagros Mountains deduced from GPS measurements. Journal of the Geological Society, London 163, 143–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Homke, S., Verges, J., Miguel Garces, M., Emami, H. & Karpuz, R. 2004. Magnetostratigraphy of Miocene–Pliocene Zagros foreland deposits in the front of the Push-e Kush Arc (Lurestan Province, Iran). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 225, 397–410CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Homke, S., Verges, J., Van Der Beek, P., Fernandez, M., Saura, E., Barbero, L., Badics, B. & Labrin, E. 2010. Insights in the exhumation history of the NW Zagros from bedrock and detrital apatite fission-track analysis: evidence for a long-lived orogeny. Basin Research 22, 659–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, G. S. & Wynd, J. G. 1965. Stratigraphic nomenclature of Iranian Oil Consortium Agreement Area. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 49, 2182–245Google Scholar
Khadivi, S., Mouthereau, F., Larrasoaña, J. C., Vergés, J., Lacombe, O., Khademi, E., Beamud, E., Melinte-Dobrinescu, M. & Suc, J.-P. 2010. Magnetochronology of synorogenic Miocene foreland sediments in the Fars arc of the Zagros Folded Belt (SE Iran). Basin Research 22, 918–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koyi, H. A. 1988. Experimental modelling of the role of gravity and lateral shortening in Zagros mountain belt. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 72, 1381–94Google Scholar
Koyi, H. A., Sans, M. & Bahroudi, A. 2004. Modelling the deformation front of fold-thrust belts containing multiple weak horizons. Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica e Applicata 45, 101–3Google Scholar
Masson, F., Chery, J., Hatzfeld, D., Martiond, J., Vernant, P., Tavakoli, F. & Ghafory-Ashtiani, M. 2005. Seismic versus aseismic deformation in Iran inferred from earthquakes and geodetic data. Geophysical Journal International 160, 217–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Motiei, H. 1993. Stratigraphy of Zagros. Treatise on the geology of Iran. Geological Survey of Iran Publications (in Farsi), 536 ppGoogle Scholar
Motiei, H. 1995. Petroleum Geology of Zagros. Treatise on the geology of Iran, vol. 1 & 2. Geological Survey of Iran Publications (in Farsi), 1009 pp.Google Scholar
Mougenot, D. & Al-Shakhis, A. A. 1999. Depth imaging sub-salt structures: a case study in the Midyan Peninsula (Red Sea). GeoArabia 4, 445–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mouthereau, F., Tensi, J., Bellahsen, N., Lacombe, O., Deboisgrollier, T. & Kargar, S. 2007. Tertiary sequence of deformation in a thin-skinned/thick-skinned collision belt: the Zagros Folded Belt (Fars, Iran). Tectonics 26, TC5006, doi:10.1029/2007TC002098, 28 ppCrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Brien, C. A. E. 1946. Some Consideration of Salt Flow in Relation to Fars Tectonics. Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Limited, Report GR672Google Scholar
O'Brien, C. A. E. 1950. Tectonic Problems of the Oilfield Belt of Southwest Iran. Proceedings of the 18th International Geological Congress, Great Britain, pt. 6, pp. 45–58Google Scholar
O'Brien, C. A. E. 1957. Salt diapirism in South Persia. Geologie en Mijnbouw 19, 337–76Google Scholar
Oezsen, R. 2004. Velocity modeling and prestack depth imaging below complex salt structures: a case history from onshore Germany. Geophysical Prospecting 52, 693–705CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sattarzadeh, Y., Cosgrove, J. W. & Vita Finzi, C. 2000. The interplay of faulting and folding during the evolution of the Zagros deformation belt. In Forced Folds and Fractures (eds Cosgrove, J. W. & Ameen, M. S.), pp.187–96. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 169.Google Scholar
Saura, E., Verges, J., Homke, S., Blanc, E., Serra-Kiel, J., Bernaola, G., Casciello, E., Fernandez, N., Romaire, I., Casini, G., Embry, J. C., Sharp, I. & Hunt, D. 2011. Basin architecture and growth folding of the NW Zagros during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary.Journal of the Geological Society, London 168, 235–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Setudehnia, A. 1977. The Mesozoic-Tertiary Sequence in Southwest Iran and Adjacent Areas. National Iranian Oil Company, Report no. 1248CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkati, S., Letouzey, J. & Frizon de Lamotte, D. 2006. The Central Zagros fold-thrust belt (Iran): new insights from seismic data, field observation, and sandbox modeling. Tectonics 25, TC4007, doi: 10.1029/2004TC001766, 27 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherkati, S., Molinaro, M., de Lamotte, D. F. & Letouzey, J. 2005. Detachment folding in the central and eastern Zagros fold-belt (Iran): salt mobility, multiple detachments and final basement control. Journal of Structural Geology 27, 1680–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takin, M. 1972. Iranian geology and continental drift in the Middle East. Nature 235, 147–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talbot, C. J. & Alavi, M. 1996. The past of a future syntaxis across the Zagros. In Salt Tectonics (eds Alsop, I., Blundell, D., & Davison, I.), pp. 89–109. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 100Google Scholar
Talbot, C. J. & Koyi, H. 1988. Active mylonites of Neopetrozoic rock salt in the Zagros. In Fault-Related Rocks; A photographic atlas (eds Snoke, A. W., Tullis, J. & Todd, V. R.), pp. 554–5. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Twiss, R. J. & Moores, E. M. 1992. Structural Geology. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 532 pp.Google Scholar
Van Buchem, F., Baghbani, D., Bullot, L., Caron, M., Gaumet, F., Hosseini, A., Immenhauser, A., Keyvani, F., Schroeder, R., Vedrenne, V. & Vincent, B. 2006. Aptian organic rich intra shelf basin creation in the Dezful Embayment – Kazhdumi and Dariyan Formations, South West Iran. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Convention, Houston. Abstract.Google Scholar
Verges, J., Goodarzi, M. G. H., Emami, H., Karpuz, R., Efstathiou, J. & Gillespie, P. 2011. Multiple detachment folding in Pusht-e Kuh arc, Zagros: role of mechanical stratigraphy. In Thrust Fault Related Folding (eds McClay, K., Shaw, J. & Suppe, J.), pp.1–26. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 94Google Scholar
Zeigler, M. 2001. Late Permian to Holocene paleofacies evolution of the Arabian Plate and its hydrocarbon occurrence. GeoArabia 6, 445–504Google Scholar