H Amini; M Fattahi; M.R Ghassemi
Abstract
The Doruneh fault is the second longest fault systems in Iran. This fault is 700 km long and extended from the Afghanistan-Iran border to the central Iran desert. Despite of its length, and position in the convergence zone between the Arabian and Eurasian plates and its seismic potential, only one historical ...
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The Doruneh fault is the second longest fault systems in Iran. This fault is 700 km long and extended from the Afghanistan-Iran border to the central Iran desert. Despite of its length, and position in the convergence zone between the Arabian and Eurasian plates and its seismic potential, only one historical earthquake (M>7) and two instrumental (M>6) earthquakes are recorded on this fault. Therefore, study of this fault is very important for evaluation of its seismic hazard. In our study, we used the Landsat images, aerial photographs, topography maps, geological maps and field work data to identify and estimate the amount of displacements of rivers, rock units, and some alluvial fans along this fault. Three branches of the Doruneh fault investigated in this study, named as the north, middle and south branches according to their geographical locations. This study demonstrates that both of the maximum and minimum fault displacements have occurred on the southern branch. Furthermore, the amount of displacements of the rivers, which have cut the alluvial fans during the Quaternary period, suggests that this branch, particularly between 57˚00΄ and 58˚50΄E, is more active than the other branches. Although, several slip rates were previously determined using different methods for some parts of this fault by the authors and other researchers, we suggest further dating and geodetic methods in the same regions and other part of the fault to estimate and compare the slip rate of different branches of this important fault.
M Foroutan; H Nazari; B Meyer; M Sébrier; M Fattahi; K Le Dortz; M Ghorashi; Kh Hessami; M. R Ghassemi; M Talebian
Abstract
The Dehshir fault system (DFS) including six fault segments forms the western border of NS-striking active dextral strike-slip fault cutting the Sanandaj-Sirjan, Uromieh-Dokhtar magmatic arc, and Central Iran. This active fault system right-laterally offset Eocene volcanic rocks and Quaternary alluvial ...
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The Dehshir fault system (DFS) including six fault segments forms the western border of NS-striking active dextral strike-slip fault cutting the Sanandaj-Sirjan, Uromieh-Dokhtar magmatic arc, and Central Iran. This active fault system right-laterally offset Eocene volcanic rocks and Quaternary alluvial fans. Geomorphic evidence imply the activity of the DFS in the Late Quaternary, and paleoseismic investigations revealed seismic movements along the Marvast fault segment during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene timescales. In order to unravel the seismic history of the DFS over the intermediate geologic (103 -105 yr) time scale, and based on the morphotectonics and sedimentary-stratigraphic properties, three paleoseismic sites have been selected along the 35-km-long stretch of the Marvast fault segment. The southern site (Harabarjan) shows steep fault branches of N140±10º strike with sub-horizontal striations in dextral component. Another trench has been excavated at the North Marvast site whitin the Late Pleistocene-Holocene alluvial and colluvial deposits. OSL analysis of loose quartz rich deposits yielded an age of ~72 ka for the oldest exposed sediments. Paleoseismic stduies along the Marvast fault segment provide evidence for the occurrence of several large seismic events associated with surface ruptures along the DFS. The chronology of paleoearthquakes on the Marvast segment indicates that at least 7 large (≈Mw > 7) earthquakes occurred in the last 43 ka with an average recurrence time of 3650±150 years. The most recent earthquake, event I, occurred ~2200 years ago, which associated with 2-4 m of dextral slip and >40 km surface rupture along the Marvast fault segment. These investigations are compatible with the lack of destruction in the Marvast historical (~1300 years) castle, located
M Foroutan; H. Nazari; B. Meyer; M. Sébrier; M. Fattahi; K. Le Dortz; M. Ghorashi; Kh. Hessami; M. R. Ghassemi; M. Talebian
Abstract
The evaluation of seismic potential along the Dehshir fault with 550-km length (by count of northern and southern splays) is critical considering that more than 3.5 million people live in cities and towns located at vicinity of the fault. The Dehshir fault is considered as westernmost limit ...
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The evaluation of seismic potential along the Dehshir fault with 550-km length (by count of northern and southern splays) is critical considering that more than 3.5 million people live in cities and towns located at vicinity of the fault. The Dehshir fault is considered as westernmost limit of N-striking dextral strike-slip faults set that slice Central and eastern Iran. Due to the lack of large recorded earthquakes (instrumental and historical) in Central Iran, access to seismic potential of active faults by studying the earthquake catalogs seems to be impossible. No instrumental earthquake has been recorded greater than mb 4.7 around the Dehshir fault and also historical data shows no evidence for occurrence of large earthquake around the fault. No sign of destruction in Marvast historical castle (at a less than 10 km far from the Dehshir fault) built in Islamic period (~700-1250), shows any remarkable seismic activity until 750-1300 years ago. However, several evidence of geomorphologic markers such as drainages, gullies, streams and alluvial fans offsets, represent activity of the Dehshir fault in Late Quaternary. Of Geomorphic evidence at Marvast and Harabarjan sites record dextral - slip on the Dehshir fault during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene as major movement with minor dip - slip component. Rake of the fault movement has been considered for assessing to amount of horizontal and vertical slip rate on the Dehshir fault. This value in the North Marvast site has been calculated ~10 degrees and according to right bank offset on the Marvast river is ~7 degrees with horizontal and vertical displacements of 13 m and 1.5 m, respectively. Combining cumulative offset markers with OSL dating implies the Dehshir fault in Late Pleistocene-Holocene time period slips at horizontal and vertical components about 1±0.3 and 0.1 mm yr-1, respectively. We observed a minimum dextral offset along the Marvast fault segment in west of Harabarjan about 2 m that allow us assuming the related magnitude and date of last large paleoearthquake on the Dehshir fault is about Mw 7 and 2000 years ago, respectively.
M. Fattahi; S. Rostami Mehraban; M. Talebian; A. Bahroudi; J. Hollingsworth; R. Walker
Abstract
Neyshabour (approximately 200,000 pop.) lies on the southern margin of the Binalud mountains in NE Iran. The city has been destroyed four times by major historical earthquakes (in 1209, 1270, 1389 and 1405 A.D.).Three large faults occur in the region. The Binalud and North Neyshabur faults ...
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Neyshabour (approximately 200,000 pop.) lies on the southern margin of the Binalud mountains in NE Iran. The city has been destroyed four times by major historical earthquakes (in 1209, 1270, 1389 and 1405 A.D.).Three large faults occur in the region. The Binalud and North Neyshabur faults lie at the foot of the Binalud range north of Neyshabour. The Neyshabour fault lies within the valley west of Neyshabour. The Neyshabour fault, which lies 10 km south of the North Neyshabur fault, is 50 km long thrust. At each end of the Neyshabour fault two young, 10 km-long, thrust segments occur. It is close to Neyshabour city; and is a probable source of the 1209 and 1405 earthquakes. It poses a substantial seismic risk to the city because of the potential for future activity. Slip rate is one of the important parameters for seismic hazard assessment which was determined using SRTM for offset measurement and OSL for age calculation. Luminescence was measured through 7 mm Hoya U-340 filters in a Risø (Model TL/OSL-DA-15) automated TL/OSL system. The equivalent dose (De) was obtained using the conventional quartz single aliquot regeneration method (Murray and Wintle, 2000). Twelve aliquots have been processed for the sample, of which only the aliquots were accepted that satisfied the SAR restrictions. De was estimated using analyst program. Age was calculated using a weighted mean De for the sample. The Dose rate was obtained using uranium, thorium and potassium concentrations, which were measured by Micro Nomand portable gamma spectrometer in field. The results are presented in Table 1. Dividing the displacement by the minimum and the maximum ages provided the slip rate to be 0.1-0.2mm/yr.
M. Talebian; S. H. Tabatabaei; M. Fattahi; M. Ghorashi; A. Beitollahi; A. Ghalandarzadeh; M.A. Riahi
Abstract
The Iranian plateau lies between the Arabian and Eurasian plates and accommodates approximately 22 mm/yr of N-S shortening. About 9 mm/y of this shortening is taken up by folding and thrusting in the Zagros while the remaining 13 mm/yr is taken up in the Alborz and Kopeh-Dagh. The Central Iran ...
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The Iranian plateau lies between the Arabian and Eurasian plates and accommodates approximately 22 mm/yr of N-S shortening. About 9 mm/y of this shortening is taken up by folding and thrusting in the Zagros while the remaining 13 mm/yr is taken up in the Alborz and Kopeh-Dagh. The Central Iran block is relatively stable and thus moves to the north with an average velocity of about 13 mm/y. As the stable Afghanistan block lies to the east, the northward motion of Central Iran produces a right-lateral shear in eastern Iran, which is distributed mainly over a few major faults to the west (~5 mm/yr) and east (~ 8 mm/yr) of the Lut desert. Limited information is available about the slip rates of individual faults in eastern Iran; therefore in this study we try to combine all geological, geodetic and available Quaternary dating results to estimate the fault slip rates and distribution of active deformation in eastern Iran. Finally, we report the results from OSL dating of samples taken from uplifted plain deposits near the south end of the Bam-Baravat fault. These results show that this fault is growing in the vertical direction with at a rate of ~ 0.5 mmy-1. Considering geometric relation between the Bam-Baravat and the south Bam earthquake fault, we estimate a slip rate of about 2 mm/y for the south Bam earthquake fault.
H. Amini; M. Fattahi; M. R. Ghassemi
Abstract
Doruneh is an active left- lateral strike- slip fault in North-East Iran. Surface trace of this fault is about 700 km long, and cuts across Quaternary and Tertiary deposits. In some places along the fault, sediments of Paleogene. Neogene, and alluvial fans of Quaternary age are displaced ...
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Doruneh is an active left- lateral strike- slip fault in North-East Iran. Surface trace of this fault is about 700 km long, and cuts across Quaternary and Tertiary deposits. In some places along the fault, sediments of Paleogene. Neogene, and alluvial fans of Quaternary age are displaced by the fault. Left- lateral displacement between 91-457 m are evident in Landsat images between east of Beiragh and east of Khalil-abad. Displacements are also evident in streams that are incised over the above mentioned deposits. We have tried to estimate the recent history of activity on the fault on the basis of the measured displacements and estimated slip rates of the fault. Estimated age of left- lateral movement inception on the fault is very much younger than the displaced geologic units. These observations indicate that Doruneh Fault has been mostly active during the last few millions, which in turn proves the fault to be an active structure.