THE SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE TECTONIC FEATURES OF THE ZAGROS FOLD-AND-THRUST BELT (BETWEEN QATAR-KAZERUN AND MINAB FAULTS)

The northwest–southeast trending Zagros Fold-and-Thrust Belt is located in the southwestern part of Iran and form a curvilinear intra-continental fold-and-thrust belt between the Arabian shield and Central Iran. A set of north-trending faults were recognized that disrupted trend of the Zagros Mountains. The Kazerun fault system as the most prominent of these faults is an ancient structural lineament which has controlled the structures, sedimentations, and subsidence of the central part of the Zagros since the Early Cambrian and has main influence on the formation of the hydrocarbon systems of the belt. Impotence of it so that, there is a significant differences in the distribution of deformation and structural style either side of this fault zone. In the eastern side of this fault system, the area between the Qatar–Kazerun and the Minab faults, has especial tectonic and seismicity setting than other parts of the Zagros due to the presence of the majority of the Hormuz salt diapirs, hydrocarbon fields, the major strike–slip faults that stretched obliquely to the main trend of Zagros and the anticlines and synclines, pierced by salt diapirs and cored by the active blind faults. This research present the spatial distribution the some of the geological and geophysical features for the characterization of tectonic of the area between the Qatar–Kazerun and the Minab faults based on field evidences, as well as review of various published data, and the contoured maps data. It seems there is the correlation between the distribution of them and the tectonic conditions of the region. The intensity of deformation, topography, crustal thickness, fold amplitude, reverse fault displacement, relative shearing along the Hormuz dećollement and age of the folded and faulted sedimentary rocks decrease from the Zagros Thrust System in the north and northeast toward the Zagros Foredeep in the south and southwest. In contrast, the seismicity increases towards south and southwest of the region. This demonstrates that the deformation front is migrating from northeast to southwest and the level of tectonic activities increase towards the southwest.