At Iranian longitude, the Arabian plate is moving northward relative to Eurasia (∼20 mm yr−1 according to GPS). To the east, this relative motion is accommodated by northward subduction under the E‐W Makran emerged accretionary prism. To the west, it is accommodated partly by the Zagros fold‐and‐thrust belt and partly by the Alborz/Kopet Dagh deforming zones further north. This work investigates the NNW striking transition zone that connects Zagros and Makran: the Minab‐Zendan fault system. Satellite images, and structural and geomorphic field observations show a distributed deformation pattern covering a wide domain. Five north to NW trending major faults were identified. They exhibit evidence for late Quaternary reverse right‐lateral slip, and correspond to two distinct fault systems: the western one transferring the Zagros deformation to the Makran prism, and the eastern one northward transferring the deformation to the Alborz/Kopet Dagh. Tectonic study and fault slip vector analyses indicate that two distinct tectonic regimes have occurred successively since the Miocene within a consistent regional NE trending compression: (1) an upper Miocene to Pliocene tectonic regime characterized by partitioned deformation, between reverse faulting and en echelon folding; (2) a NE trending σ1 axis transpressional regime homogeneously affecting the region since upper Pliocene. The change is contemporaneous with major tectonic reorganization regionally recorded. Therefore this study provides evidence for active deformation that is not localized, but distributed across a wide zone. It accommodates the convergence and transfers it from collision to subduction by transpressional tectonics without any partitioning process in the present‐day period.

International audienceThe Zendan-Minab zone is the transition zone between the Zagros collision to the west and Makran subduction to the east. It is also linked to the north with the Nayband-Gowk fault system that bounds the Lut Block to the east. The total convergence rate between Arabia and Eurasia is estimated to range between 23 and 35 mm yr-1 in a NNE-trending direction. The deformation through the Minab-Zendan system is accommodated within two fault systems, the western N160°E-trending Minab-Zendan fault system and the eastern north-south Sabzevaran-Jiroft fault system. The study area is characterized by a well-defined succession of Quaternary deposit levels. The age of these deposits was estimated by archaeological data, regional palaeoclimate correlations and constrained by additional in situ10Be dating in another paper in this study. These deposits exhibit offsets, both lateral and vertical, that are evaluated by satellite image analysis and GPS profiles. Thanks to offsets and ages the strike-slip rates associated with the Minab-Zendan and the Sabzevaran-Jiroft fault systems are calculated to be 5.1 +/- 1.3 or 6.6 +/- 1.5, and 6.2 +/- 0.7 mm yr-1, respectively. These results allow an evaluation of the velocity vector of the Musandam Peninsula (Oman) with respect to the Lut Block of 11.4 +/- 2.0 or 12.9 +/- 2.2 mm yr-1 in a N10 +/- 15°E direction, close to the GPS estimates. This study also constrains the in-plane slip rates for each fault. Previous works indicate that the Zagros accommodates only 10 mm yr-1 of shortening, while 10 mm yr-1 should be accommodated by the Alborz mountains in northern Iran. This last 10 mm yr-1 may be accommodated through the Nayband-Gowk system and the East Iranian ranges, implying that the two fault systems constituting the Zagros-Makran transfer zone have different geodynamic roles. The western Minab-Zendan fault system links the Makran and Zagros deforming zones, whereas the northwestern Jiroft-Sabzevaran fault system is transmitting the deformation to the Nayband-Gowk system and then to the Alborz ranges. The presence of another such strike-slip zone within the Makran seems to indicate that the accommodation zone between the Zagros and Makran is wide, of the order of 400 km. We interpret this deformation pattern that accompanies the genesis of the immature transform zone by a flexure of the slab under the Zagros-Makran transfer zone instead of a tear in the slab that may be expected to induce a sharper transition zone

[1] A paleomagnetic study of Penninic units in the southern part of the Alpine arc has been carried out. More than 200 samples (23 sites) were collected in Briançonnais Ammonitico rosso limestones of the high Ubaye valley and the Ligurian Alps. A characteristic component of magnetization of reverse polarity was isolated on most of the sites. This component does not pass the fold test and is interpreted as a Tertiary overprint related to Alpine metamorphism. Mean directions in geographic coordinates are D = 121°, I = À52°, a 95 = 11°, and D = 72°, I = À48°, a 95 = 15°for the Ubaye and the Liguria localities, respectively, indicating large counterclockwise rotations about vertical axis of 68°and 117°relative to stable Europe. These rotations, in agreement with a previous study conducted in the Briançon area, together with other paleomagnetic data from the western Alps, show that the internal Alps suffered a large but nonhomogeneous counterclockwise rotation since the Oligocene. The rotations are in agreement with the combination of earlier separately proposed processes: the rotation of the Adriatic plate accounts for about 25°of rotation, remaining rotation and southward gradient would be related to left-lateral shear accommodating the displacement between Adria and Europe at the southern border of the western Alps. Furthermore, the southward extrusion of the western Alps south of the Simplon fault zone may account for up to 10°of rotation. Rotations appear therefore as a major process accommodating deformation in the western Alps since the Oligocene.