Abstract The structurally and stratigraphically complex area of northern and central Iran holds the key to understanding the plate tectonic evolution of the South Caspian–Central Iran area. The closure of the Palaeotethys, the opening of the Neotethys, the rise and demise of the Cimmerian mountain chain, as well as the onset of Neotethys subduction and large-scale Neotethyan back-arc rifting all predated the formation of the more than 20 km-thick fill of the South Caspian Basin. This volume brings together work by specialists in different disciplines of the geosciences (tectonics, geophysics, sedimentology, stratigraphy, palaeontology, basin modelling and geodynamics) in order to elucidate the complex Late Palaeozoic–Cenozoic geodynamic history of the Iran area and the birth of the South Caspian Basin.

Abstract The Upper Triassic–lower Middle Jurassic Shemshak Group is a siliciclastic unit, up to 4000 m in thickness, which is widespread across the Iran Plate of northern and central Iran. The group is sandwiched between two major unconformities: the contact with the underlying platform carbonates of the Elikah and Shotori formations is characterized by karstification and bauxite–laterite deposits; the top represents a sharp change from siliciclastic rocks to rocks of a Middle–Upper Jurassic carbonate platform–basin system. In the Alborz Mountains, the group consists of a Triassic and a Jurassic unit, separated by an unconformity, which is in part angular in the northern part of the mountain range and less conspicuous towards the south. Published lithostratigraphic schemes are based on insufficient biostratigraphic and lithological information. Here we present a new lithostratigraphic scheme for the central and eastern Alborz Mountains modified and enlarged from an unpublished report produced in 1976. Two major facies belts, a northern and a southern belt running more or less parallel to the strike of the mountain chain, can be distinguished. In the north, the Triassic part of the group is composed of the comparatively deep-marine Ekrasar Formation with the Galanderud Member (new name) at the base followed by the Laleband Formation, which represents prodelta–delta front environments. Up-section, the latter is replaced by the fluvial–lacustrine, coal-bearing Kalariz Formation. The equivalent Triassic lithostratigraphic unit in the south is the Shahmirzad Formation, redefined here, with the Parvar Member at the base. The formation represents fluvial, coastal plain and shallow- to marginal-marine environments. In the north, the Jurassic part of the group consists exclusively of the Javaherdeh Formation, coarse conglomerates of alluvial fan–braided river origin, which towards the south grades into the Alasht Formation, rocks of fluvial–lacustrine origin with coal. Further south, the Alasht Formation represents intertonguing marginal-marine–flood-plain environments and is followed by the Shirindasht Formation, sandstones and siltstones, indicative of the storm-dominated shelf, and the Fillzamin Formation (new), which is characterized by comparatively deep-marine shales. In the south, the group ends with the Dansirit Formation of deltaic–coastal-plain origin. This lithostratigraphic scheme reflects the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the Shemshak Foreland Basin of the Alborz Mountains where, during the Late Triassic, a relict marine basin in the north became gradually infilled, whereas in the south non-sedimentation and subaerial erosion prevailed and sediments record largely non-marine–marginal-marine conditions. During the early Lias, the basin was filled with erosional debris of the rising Cimmerian Mountain Chain, deposited largely in non-marine environments. During the early Middle Jurassic, in contrast, rapid subsidence in the south resulted in the deepening and subsequent infilling of a marine basin.

Abstract The Lower–lower Middle Jurassic non-marine sedimentary succession of the Binalud Mountains of NE Iran is correlated with the Jurassic part of the Shemshak Group of the Alborz Mountains and subdivided into three formations: the Arefi, the Bazehowz and the Aghounj formations. The succession rests, with angular unconformity, on a metamorphic basement deformed during the Late Triassic Eo-Cimmerian orogeny. The lowermost unit, the Arefi Formation, is subdivided into a lower Derekhtoot Member and an upper Kurtian Member. The Derekhtoot Member (up to 750 m thick) consists of very coarse-grained, chaotic boulder beds, breccias and conglomerates representing rock-fall deposits and proximal–middle alluvial fans, deposited along steep fault scarps. The succeeding Kurtian Member (>300 m) comprises finer-grained conglomerates with well-rounded clasts, reflecting deposition in a proximal braided river system. The overlying Bazehowz Formation is more than 1000 m thick and consists of vertically stacked, decametre-scale channel-fill cycles of the middle reaches of a braided fluvial system. The uppermost unit, the Aghounj Formation, consists of at least 400 m of granule- to pebble-size, thick-bedded and large-scale trough cross-bedded quartz conglomerates and sandy interbeds of a proximal braided fluvial system. The overall succession fines upwards due to erosion, down to metamorphic basement, of a high-relief source area in the NE, and rests on Cimmerian basement, suggesting that the strata are intramontane deposits of the Cimmerian mountain chain in NE Iran. This interpretation has important implications concerning the position of the NW–SE-trending Eo-Cimmerian suture in NE Iran, which should be placed further SW than formerly assumed.

Abstract The Mid-Cimmerian tectonic event of Bajocian age can be documented all across the Iran Plate (Alborz Mountains of northern Iran, NE Iran, east-central Iran) and the southern Koppeh Dagh (northeastern Iran). In the Alborz area, the tectonic event consisted of two main pulses. A distinct unconformity (near the Lower–Upper Bajocian boundary) at or near the base of the Dansirit Formation is the sedimentary expression of rapid basin shallowing due to uplift and erosion. Another unconformity is developed in the early Upper Bajocian, close to or at the top of the Dansirit Formation. Locally, it is expressed as an angular unconformity due to block rotation and is overlain by a thin transgressive conglomerate followed by silty marls of the deep-marine Upper Bajocian–Callovian Dalichai Formation. This upper unconformity signals a rapid subsidence pulse. On the Tabas Block of east-central Iran, a single unconformity can be documented that is time-equivalent to those bounding the Dansirit Formation (i.e. ‘mid-Bajocian’). Local folding gives direct evidence of compressional tectonics, and conglomerates indicate subaerial denudation of older Mesozoic or Palaeozoic strata. After a stratigraphic gap, transgressive sediments of ?Late Bajocian–Bathonian age follow, suggesting a fusion of the lower and upper Mid-Cimmerian unconformities in east-central Iran. Along the southern margin of the Koppeh Dagh Mountains (NE Iran), a Late Bajocian subsidence pulse initiated the opening of the strongly subsiding Kashafrud Basin, an eastwards extension of the South Caspian Basin. In all of these areas, one phase of uplift and erosion took place followed by a pronounced pulse of subsidence running counter to trends of the eustatic sea-level curve. Thus, what is generally understood as the Mid-Cimmerian tectonic event is now thought to consist of a tectonic phase, confined to the Bajocian. This phase is explained as the expression of the onset of sea-floor spreading within the South Caspian Basin situated to the north of the present-day Alborz Mountains. This strongly subsiding basin developed close to the Palaeotethys suture during the Toarcian–Aalenian and went through a change from the rifting- to the spreading-stage during the Bajocian. The Mid-Cimmerian event therefore reflects the break-up unconformity of the South Caspian Basin.

Abstract A strongly subsiding rift basin in NE Iran, the Kashafrud Basin, opened in the Late Bajocian with the accumulation of more than 2000 m of Upper Bajocian–Upper Bathonian siliciclastic sediments. These sediments comprise the Kashafrud Formation, which crops out along a NW–SE stretch of more than 200 km and occupies a width of 50 km, situated between the Koppeh Dagh and the Binalud Mountains. Ten sections of the formation were logged. Sedimentary environments range from non-marine alluvial fans and braided rivers in the lowermost part of the succession to deltas, succeeded by storm-dominated shelf, slope and deep-marine basin. Monotonous mudstones and turbidites prevail in the deep-marine part of the basin. The thickness and facies of the Kashafrud Formation vary strongly between localities, and reflect distance from the rift margins as well as submarine topography, which was shaped by block tectonics. The Kashafrud Basin is interpreted as the eastern extension of the South Caspian Basin, which entered the rifting stage in the late Early Jurassic and the spreading stage in the Late Bajocian.

Abstract The Tabas Block of east-central Iran shows very thick and well-exposed Upper Triassic–Jurassic sequences, which are crucial for the understanding of the Mesozoic evolution of the Iran Plate. The succession is subdivided into major tectonostratigraphic units based on widespread unconformities related to the Cimmerian tectonic events. As elsewhere in Iran, there is a dramatic change from Middle Triassic platform carbonates (Shotori Formation) to the siliciclastic rocks of the Shemshak Group (Norian–Bajocian), reflecting the onset of Eo-Cimmerian deformation in northern Iran. Following the marine sedimentation of the Norian–Rhaetian Nayband Formation, the change to non-marine, coal-bearing siliciclastic rocks (Ab-e-Haji Formation) around the Triassic–Jurassic boundary is related to the main uplift phase of the Cimmerian orogeny. Condensed limestones of the Toarcian–Aalenian Badamu Formation indicate widespread transgression, followed by rapid lateral facies and thickness variations in the succeeding Lower Bajocian Hojedk Formation. This tectonic instability culminated in the middle Bajocian compressional–extensional Mid-Cimmerian event. The resulting Mid-Cimmerian unconformity separates the Shemshak Group from the Upper Bajocian–Upper Jurassic Magu (or Bidou) Group. The succeeding Late Bajocian–Bathonian onlap of the Parvadeh and Baghamshah formations (Baghamshah Subgroup) was caused by increased subsidence of the Tabas Block rather than a eustatic sea-level rise, followed by the development of a large-scale platform–basin carbonate system (Callovian–Kimmeridgian Esfandiar Subgroup). Block faulting starting in the Kimmeridgian (Late Cimmerian event) resulted in the destruction of the carbonate system, which was covered by Kimmeridgian–Tithonian limestone conglomerates, red beds and evaporites (Garedu Subgroup or Ravar Formation). Virtually the same pattern of relative sea-level change, facies development and succession of geodynamic events is recorded from the Late Triassic–Jurassic of northern Iran (Alborz Mountains), suggesting that the Iran Plate behaved as a single structural unit at that time.

Abstract During the Cretaceous (145.5-65.5 Ma; Gradstein et al. 2004 ). Central Europe was part of the European continental plate, which was bordered by the North Atlantic ocean and the Arctic Sea to the NW and north, the Bay of Biscay to the SW, the northern branch of the Tethys Ocean to the south, and by the East European Platform to the east ( Fig. 15.1 ). The evolution of sedimentary basins was influenced by the interplay of two main global processes: plate tectonics and eustatic sea-level change. Plate tectonic reconfigurations resulted in the widening of the Central Atlantic, and the opening of the Bay of Biscay. The South Atlantic opening caused a counter-clockwise rotation of Africa, which was coeval with the closure of the Tethys Ocean. Both motions terminated the Permian-Early Cretaceous North Sea rifting and placed Europe in a transtensional stress field. The long-term eustatic sea-level rise resulted in the highest sea level during Phanerozoic times ( haq et al. 1988;Hardenbol et al. 1998 ). Large epicontinental shelf areas were flooded as a consequence of elevated spreading rates of mid-ocean ridges and intra-oceanic plateau volcanism, causing the development of extended epicontinental shelf seas and shelf-sea basins ( Hays & pitman 1973 ; Larson 1991 ). A new and unique lithofacies type, the pelagic chalk, was deposited in distal parts of the individual basins. Chalk deposition commenced during middle Cenomanian-early Turanian times. Chalk consists almost exclusively of the remains of planktonic coccolithophorid algae and other pelagic organisms, and its great thickness reflects a high rate of production of the algal tests. The bulk of the grains are composed of lowmagnesium calcite, representing coccolith debris with a subordinate amount of foraminifers, calcispheres, small invertebrates and shell fragments of larger invertebrates ( Håkansson et al. 1974 ; Surlyk & Birkelund 1977 ; Nygaard et al. 1983 ; Hancock 1975 , 1993 ).