GPS network monitors the Arabia-Eurasia collision deformation in Iran

Nilforoushan, F.; Masson, Frédéric; Vernant, Philippe; Vigny, Christophe; Martinod, Joseph; Abbassi, M. R.; Nankali, H.; Hatzfeld, Denis; Bayer, R.; Tavakoli, F.; Ashtiani, A.; Doerflinger, E.; Daignières, M.; Collard, Philippe; Chéry, Jean

doi:10.1007/s00190-003-0326-5

Cited by 185 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Our observations show an average uplift rate of 3 mm/year around the Damavand summit, which is in agreement with the recent investigation suggesting an inflating magma chamber at depths 3-6 km as the source of deformation at Damavand [56]. Moreover, the active tectonic convergence between the Arabian and Eurasian plates [57,58] partly accommodates in the Alborz Mountains and causes Alborz uplift. In the Damavand region, up to 3 mm/year of uplift has been reported for ABAL station (Figure 4) based on GPS and absolute gravity measurements [50].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

StaMPS Improvement for Deformation Analysis in Mountainous Regions: Implications for the Damavand Volcano and Mosha Fault in Alborz

2015

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Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) capability to detect slow deformation over terrain areas is limited by temporal decorrelation, geometric decorrelation and atmospheric artefacts. Multitemporal InSAR methods such as Persistent Scatterer (PS-InSAR) and Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) have been developed to deal with various aspects of decorrelation and atmospheric problems affecting InSAR observations. Nevertheless, the applicability of both PS-InSAR and SBAS in mountainous regions is still challenging. Correct phase unwrapping in both methods is hampered due to geometric decorrelation in particular when using C-band SAR data for deformation analysis. In this paper, we build upon the SBAS method implemented in StaMPS software and improved the technique, here called ISBAS, to assess tectonic and volcanic deformation in the center of the Alborz Mountains in Iran using both Envisat and ALOS SAR data. We modify several aspects within the chain of the processing including: filtering prior to phase unwrapping, topographic correction within three-dimensional phase unwrapping, reducing the atmospheric noise with the help of additional GPS data, and removing the ramp caused by ionosphere turbulence and/or orbit errors to better estimate crustal deformation in this tectonically active region. Topographic correction is done within the three-dimensional unwrapping in order to improve the phase unwrapping process, which is in contrast to OPEN ACCESS Remote Sens. 2015, 7 8324 previous methods in which DEM error is estimated before/after phase unwrapping. Our experiments show that our improved SBAS approach is able to better characterize the tectonic and volcanic deformation in the center of the Alborz region than the classical SBAS.In particular, Damavand volcano shows an average uplift rate of about 3 mm/year in the year 2003-2010. The Mosha fault illustrates left-lateral motion that could be explained with a fault that is locked up to 17-18 km depths and slips with 2-4 mm/year below that depth.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

StaMPS Improvement for Deformation Analysis in Mountainous Regions: Implications for the Damavand Volcano and Mosha Fault in Alborz

2015

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“…Recent works, however, have been pointing out the misfit between the apparently low estimates of shortening and the longterm convergence rates of 8-10 mm yr −1 within the Zagros Fold Belt (Tatar et al 2002;Nilforoushan et al 2003), suggesting tentative shortening amounts of 150-230 km (e.g. Fakhari et al 2008;Gavillot et al 2010).…”

Section: B Comparison With Previous Qualitative Arabian Margin Recmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crustal-scale cross-sections across the NW Zagros belt: implications for the Arabian margin reconstruction

et al. 2011

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-Quantified balanced and restored crustal cross-sections across the NW Zagros Mountains are presented in this work integrating geological and geophysical local and global datasets. The balanced crustal cross-section reproduces the surficial folding and thrusting of the thick cover succession, including the near top of the Sarvak Formation (∼ 90 Ma) that forms the top of the restored crustal cross-section. The base of the Arabian crust in the balanced cross-section is constrained by recently published seismic receiver function results showing a deepening of the Moho from 42 ± 2 km in the undeformed foreland basin to 56 ± 2 km beneath the High Zagros. The internal parts of the deformed crustal cross-section are constrained by new seismic tomographic sections imaging a ∼ 50 • NE-dipping sharp contact between the Arabian and Iranian crusts. These surfaces bound an area of 10 800 km 2 that should be kept constant during the Zagros orogeny. The Arabian crustal cross-section is restored using six different tectonosedimentary domains according to their sedimentary facies and palaeobathymetries, and assuming Airy isostasy and area conservation. While the two southwestern domains were directly determined from well-constrained surface data, the reconstruction of the distal domains to the NE was made using the recent margin model of Wrobel-Daveau et al. (2010) and fitting the total area calculated in the balanced cross-section. The Arabian continental-oceanic boundary, at the time corresponding to the near top of the Sarvak Formation, is located 169 km to the NE of the trace of the Main Recent Fault. Shortening is estimated at ∼ 180 km for the cover rocks and ∼ 149 km for the Arabian basement, including all compressional events from Late Cretaceous to Recent time, with an average shortening rate of ∼ 2 mm yr −1 for the last 90 Ma.

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“…The Zagros Mountains and the foreland are currently seismically extremely active. Recent GPS measurements indicate that the Arabian plate continues to move northwards relative to the Iranian microplate at rates of 20 ± 5 mm yr −1 (Tatar et al 2002;Blanc et al 2003;Nilforoushan et al 2003;Allen, Jackson & Walker, 2004;Allen et al 2006;Vernant et al 2004;Rielinger et al 2006;Walpersdorf et al 2006).…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neogene sediments and modern depositional environments of the Zagros foreland basin system

et al. 2011

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-A sedimentological investigation of the Neogene deposits of the Zagros foreland basin in SW Iran reveals a continuous and largely gradational passage from supratidal and sabkha sediments at the base (represented by the Gachsaran Formation) to carbonates and marine marls (Mishan Formation with basal Guri carbonate member) followed by coastal plain and meandering river deposits (Agha Jari Formation) and finally to braided river gravel sheets (Bakhtyari Formation). This vertical succession is interpreted to represent the southward migration of foreland basin depozones (from distal foredeep and foredeep to distal wedge-top and proximal wedge-top, respectively) as the Zagros fold-thrust belt migrated progressively southward towards the Arabian foreland. This vertical succession bears a striking similarity to modern depositional environments and sedimentary deposits observed in the Zagros region today, where one passes from mainly braided rivers in the Zagros Mountains to meandering rivers close to the coast, to shallow marine clastic sediments along the northern part of the Persian Gulf and finally to carbonate ramp and sabkha deposits along the southeastern coast of the Persian Gulf. This link between the Neogene succession and the modern-day depositional environments strongly suggests that the major Neogene formations of the Zagros foreland basin are strongly diachronous (as shown recently by others) and have active modern-day equivalents.

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GPS network monitors the Arabia-Eurasia collision deformation in Iran

Cited by 185 publications

References 19 publications

StaMPS Improvement for Deformation Analysis in Mountainous Regions: Implications for the Damavand Volcano and Mosha Fault in Alborz

StaMPS Improvement for Deformation Analysis in Mountainous Regions: Implications for the Damavand Volcano and Mosha Fault in Alborz

Crustal-scale cross-sections across the NW Zagros belt: implications for the Arabian margin reconstruction

Neogene sediments and modern depositional environments of the Zagros foreland basin system

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