Tectonic and stratigraphic evolution of Zagros and Makran during the Mesozoic-Cenozoic: introduction

The Zagros fold–thrust belt (ZFTB) extends for c. 2000 km from Turkey in the NW to the Hormuz Strait in the SE. This belt results from the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates during Cenozoic times and constitutes a morphological barrier (with some peaks exceeding 4000 m) separating the Arabian platform from the large plateaux of central Iran. To the east a pronounced syntaxis marks the transition between the Zagros collision belt and the Makran accretionary wedge. In the ZFTB, the Proterozoic to Recent stratigraphic succession pile of the southern Tethys margin is involved in huge folds detached from the Pan-African basement and offers the opportunity to study the stratigraphic and tectonic evolution of the Palaeo-Tethyan margin over large time periods. Few recent data are widely available on the southern Tethys margin as preserved in the Zagros Mountains. Since the classical works of James & Wynd (1965) and Murris (1980), the most recent synthesis is the palaeogeographical reconstruction of the Arabian platform published by Ziegler (2001). Many petroleum data have been acquired during the last 10 years, but few of these have been published. The Middle East Basins Evolution (MEBE) Programme, coordinated by P. Barrier and M. F. Brunet, in close relationship with colleagues of the Geological Survey of Iran, was an excellent opportunity to go back to the field and to collect new data to better constrain the evolution of this margin. In this volume, the structure of the Zagros Mountains is explored through different scales and using different approaches.