Reza Salamati

Active transtension inside central Alborz: A new insight into northern Iran–southern Caspian geodynamics

The tectonic activity in the Alborz mountain range, northern Iran, is due both to the northward convergence of central Iran toward Eurasia, and to the northwestward motion of the South Caspian Basin with respect to Eurasia inducing a left-lateral wrenching along this range. These two mechanisms give rise to a NNE-SSW transpressional regime, which is believed to have affected the entire range for the last 5 6 2 m.y. In this paper, we show that the internal domain of central Alborz is not affected by a transpressional regime but by an active transtension with a WNW-ESE extensional axis. We show that this transten- sion is young (middle Pleistocene). It postdates an earlier N-S compression and may have been initiated when the South Caspian Basin started moving. Consequently, our results suggest that the South Caspian Basin motion may have taken place more recently than previously proposed.

Active tectonics of the east Alborz mountains, NE Iran: Rupture of the left-lateral Astaneh fault system during the great 856 A.D. Qumis earthquake

The 856 A.D. Qumis earthquake (M7.9) is the most destructive earthquake to have occurred in Iran, killing more than 200,000 people and destroying the cities of Damghan and the old Parthian capital of Shahr-i Qumis (Hecatompylos). This study combines evidence of historical seismicity with observations of the geomorphology and paleoseismology to provide the first detailed description of active faulting in the Damghan region of the east Alborz mountains, Iran. Regional left-lateral shear is accommodated on the Astaneh, Damghan, and North Damghan faults. Quaternary alluvial fans have been displaced along the Astaneh fault, with 15–20 m stream offsets recording the cumulative displacement over the last two to five earthquakes. A paleoseismology study from a single trench along a 5–10 km segment of the Astaneh fault reveals a rupture prior to 1300 A.D. and significantly later than 600 B.C. Despite the limitations of a single trench in documenting the spatial and temporal evolution of the fault over the late Quaternary, we are nevertheless able to bracket the last event to a time period consistent with the 856 A.D. earthquake. Two older earthquakes were also identified during the Holocene occurring between 600 B.C. and 4600 B.C. and between 4600 B.C. and 9600 B.C. The location of our trench within a bend on the Astaneh fault, which could act as a barrier to rupture propagation, means the three earthquakes recovered from our trench over the Holocene may represent a minimum. Further trenching will reveal how the Astaneh fault ruptures over repeated earthquakes and, consequently, the magnitude and extent of slip during the 856 A.D. earthquake.

Paleoearthquakes of the past 30,000 years along the North Tehran Fault (Iran)

The North Tehran Fault (NTF) is located at the southernmost piedmont of Central Alborz and crosses the northern suburbs of the Tehran metropolis and adjacent cities, where ∼15 million people live. Extending over a length of about 110 km, the NTF stands out as a major active fault and represents an important seismic hazard for the Iranian capital after historical seismicity. In order to characterize the activity of the NTF in terms of kinematics, magnitude and recurrence intervals of earthquakes, we carried out a first paleoseismological study of the fault within its central part between Tehran and Karaj cities. We opened a trench across a 3 m-high fault scarp affecting Quaternary deposits. Our study shows that the scarp is the result of repeated events along a main N115°E trending shallow dipping thrust fault, associated with secondary ruptures. From the trench analysis and Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) dating of fault-related sediments, we interpreted between 6 and 7 surface-rupturing events that occurred during the past 30 kyrs. Their magnitudes (estimated from the displacements along the faults) are comprised between 6.1 and 7.2. The two last events - the largest - occurred during the past 7.9 ± 1.2 ka, which yields a Holocene slip rate of ∼0.3 mm/yr. The 7 earthquakes scenario suggests a regular periodicity with a mean recurrence interval of ∼3.8 kyrs. However, the two most recent events could correspond to the two largest historical earthquakes recorded in the area (in 312-280 B.C. and 1177 A.D.), and therefore suggest that the NTF activity is not regular.