The present-day deformation of the central Zagros from GPS measurements.

M. Tatar , Denis Hatzfeld (1) , J. Martinod , Andrea Walpersdorf (1) , M. Ghafori Ashtiany , J. Chery

1 LGIT - Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique

In 1997 and in 2000, we measured the distances between 14 geodetic benchmarks across the central Zagros mountain belt. The results show that about 10 mm/yr of shortening in the central Zagros is distributed across the mountain belt. This shortening corresponds to roughly 50% of the total convergence between Arabia and Eurasia and is consistent in direction. The Persian Gulf does not deform significantly. The Main Zagros Reverse Fault is not an active kinematic boundary. The internal deformation of the folded belt is rather homogeneous, at the scale of our survey, which does not allow us to detect any individual active blind fault. However, the strain pattern suggests that N-S dextral strike slip faults may accommodate part of the deformation.

Mots clés: 1206 Geodesy and Gravity: Crustal movements-interplate (8155); 1243 Geodesy and Gravity: Space geodetic surveys; 8107 Tectonophysics: Continental neotectonics; 8102 Tectonophysics: Continental contractional orogenic belts

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]

M. Tatar, Denis Hatzfeld, J. Martinod, Andrea Walpersdorf, M. Ghafori Ashtiany, et al.. The present-day deformation of the central Zagros from GPS measurements.. Geophysical Research Letters, 2003, 29 (19), pp.1927. ⟨10.1029/2002GL015427⟩. ⟨hal-00109988⟩