STRATIGRAPHY AND STRUCTURES OF THE NAHAVAND REGION IN WESTERN IRAN, AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ZAGROS TECTONICS

Several rock stratigraphic successions, metamorphosed and non-metamorphosed, are found to be similar and/or identical with each other across the so-called 'Main Zagros Thrust'. Stratigraphic successions form thin allochthonous sheets carried from northeast to southwest by numerous low-angle thrust faults of either ductile to brittle-ductile type or brittle type. Similarities in lithic and faunal characteristics of the stratigraphic units and in the style of structural deformation across the 'Main Zagros Thrust' imply that either the suture between the Afro-Arabian and Iranian lithospheric plates is not located in the Nahavand region or, if it is, it must be buried under several thrust sheets.