New structural, sedimentological, petrological and palaeomagnetic data collected in the region of Nakhlak-Anarak provide important constraints on the Cimmerian evolution of Central Iran. The Olenekian-Upper Ladinian succession of Nakhlak was deposited in a forearc setting, and records the exhumation and erosion of an orogenic wedge, possibly located in the present-day Anarak region. The Triassic succession was deformed after Ladinian times and shows south-vergent folds and thrusts unconformably covered by Upper Cretaceous limestones following the Late Jurassic Neo-Cimmerian deformation. Palaeomagnetic data obtained in the Olenekian succession suggest a palaeoposition of the region close to Eurasia at a latitude around 208N. In addition, the palaeopoles do not support large anticlockwise rotations around vertical axes for central Iran with respect to Eurasia since the Middle Triassic, as previously suggested.The Anarak Metamorphic Complex (AMC) includes blueschist-facies metabasites associated with discontinuous slivers of serpentinized ultramafic rocks and Carboniferous greenschistfacies 'Variscan' metamorphic rocks, including widespread metacarbonates. The AMC was formed, at least partially, in the Triassic. Its erosion is recorded by the Middle Triassic Bāqoroq Formation at Nakhlak, which consists of conglomerates and sandstones rich in metamorphic detritus. The AMC was repeatedly deformed during post-Triassic times, giving origin to a complex structural setting characterized by strong tectonic fragmentation of previously formed tectonic units.Based on these data, we suggest that the Nakhlak-Anarak units represent an arc-trench system developed during the Eo-Cimmerian orogenic cycle. Different tectonic scenarios that can account for the evolution of the region and for the occurrence of this orogenic wedge in its present position within Central Iran are critically discussed, as well as its relationships with a presumed 'Variscan' metamorphic event.

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New Late Ordovician and Triassic palaeomagnetic data from Iran are presented. These data, in conjunction with data from the literature, provide insights on the drift history of Iran as part of Cimmeria during the Ordovician–Triassic. A robust agreement of palaeomagnetic poles of Iran and West Gondwana is observed for the Late Ordovician–earliest Carboniferous, indicating that Iran was part of Gondwana during that time. Data for the Late Permian–early Early Triassic indicate that Iran resided on subequatorial palaeolatitudes, clearly disengaged from the parental Gondwanan margin in the southern hemisphere. Since the late Early Triassic, Iran has been located in the northern hemisphere close to the Eurasian margin. This northward drift brought Iran to cover much of the Palaeotethys in approximately 35 Ma, at an average plate speed of c. 7–8 cm year−1, and was in part coeval to the transformation of Pangaea from an Irvingian B to a Wegenerian A-type configuration.

The Triassic chronostratigraphic scale was built on two centuries of research on ammonoid biostratigraphy and biochronology. Two Triassic stage bases and all of the Triassic substages are currently defined by ammonoid bioevents. The study of Triassic ammonoids began during the late 1700s, and in 1895, Edmund von Mojsisovics, Wilhelm Waagen and Carl Diener published an essentially complete Triassic chronostratigraphic scale based on ammonoid biostratigraphy. This scale introduced many of the Triassic stage and substage names still used today, and all terminology of stages and substages subsequently introduced has been based on ammonoid biostratigraphy. Early Triassic ammonoids show a trend from cosmopolitanism (Induan) to latitudinal differentiation (Olenekian), and the four Lower Triassic substage (Griesbachian, Dinerian, Smithian and Spathian) boundaries are globally correlated by widespread ammonoid biotic events. Middle Triassic ammonoids have provinciality similar to that of the Olenekian and provide a basis for recognizing six Middle Triassic substages. Late Triassic ammonoids provide a basis for recognizing three stages divided into five substages. The main uncertainty for the future of Triassic ammonoid biostratigraphy is not the decline of the ammonoids as a tool for dating and correlation of Triassic strata but, rather, the dramatic decrease in the number of specialists, due to the lack of replacement of experienced palaeontologists who started their activity in the 1950s and 1960s.

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An important, 2.4 km-thick Triassic succession is exposed at Nakhlak (central Iran). This succession was deformed during the Cimmerian orogeny and truncated by an angular unconformity with undeformed Upper Cretaceous sediments. This integrated stratigraphic study of the Triassic included bed-by-bed sampling for ammonoids, conodonts and bivalves, as well as limestone and sandstone petrographic analyses. The Nakhlak Group succession consists of three formations: Alam (Olenekian–Anisian), Bāqoroq (?Upper Anisian–Ladinian) and Ashin (Upper Ladinian). The Alam Formation records several shifts from carbonate to siliciclastic deposition, the Bāqoroq Formation consists of continental conglomerates and the Ashin Formation documents the transition to deep-sea turbiditic sedimentation.Petrographic composition has been studied for sandstones and conglomerates. Provenance analysis for Alam and most of the Ashin samples suggests a volcanic arc setting, whereas the samples from the Bāqoroq Formation are related to exhumation of a metamorphic basement. The provenance data, together with the great thickness, the sudden change of facies, the abundance of volcaniclastic supply, the relatively common occurrence of tuffitic layers and the orogenic calc-alkaline affinity of the volcanism, point to sedimentation along an active margin in a forearc setting.A comparison between the Triassic of Nakhlak and the Triassic succession exposed in the erosional window of Aghdarband (Koppeh Dag, NE Iran) indicates that both were deposited along active margins. However, they do not show the same type of evolution. Nakhlak and Aghdarband have quite different ammonoid faunal affinities during the Early Triassic, but similar faunal composition from the Bithynian to Late Ladinian. These results argue against the location of Nakhlak close to Aghdarband.

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Magnetobiostratigraphic data are presented from three Early/Middle Triassic HanBulog Limestone successions from Kqira, northern Albania. A total of 206 standard palaeomagnetic samples were obtained for thermal demagnetization and statistical analysis from the 42, 10 and 5 m thick sections. The reversal-bearing characteristic component, carried by haematite and magnetite, defines a composite sequence of six main polarity intervals (Kqln to Kq3r) in which are embedded four short polarity intervals, one at the base of Kqln and three towards the top of Kqlr. The early acquisition of the characteristic remanence is supported by the lateral correlation of magnetozones between sections. The Early/Middle Triassic boundary, approximated by the first occurrence of the conodont Chiosella timorensis, falls close to the Kqlr/Kq2n polarity transition. This is in good agreement with recently published magnetobiostratigraphic data from the coeval Chios (Greece) sections. The palaeomagnetic pole calculated from the Kqira characteristic directions lies close to the Triassic portion of the apparent polar wander path for Laurussia (in European coordinates). However, a 40-45" clockwise rotation of the external zone of the Albano-Hellenic Belt to the south of the Scutari-Pec Line is thought to have occurred since the Early-Middle Miocene. The Kqira pole acquires a West Gondwana affinity when restored for the Neogene clockwise rotation. If the clockwise rotation was entirely related to Neogene tectonics, the Kqira area was evidently associated with West Gondwana and located at 12-16"N of the western Tethys margin.