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IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy<br />

(S) - <strong>IASPEI</strong> - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's<br />

Interior<br />

JSS014 Poster presentation 2303<br />

Active deformation in the Zanjan region, northwest Iran<br />

Dr. Farhad Sobouti<br />

Khaled Hesami, Reza Ghods<br />

The Zanjan region in northwestern Iran is an area of intense deformation situated between two thrust<br />

belts of the Alborz to the north and the Zagros Mountains to the south. Offset geomorphic features<br />

along the major faults of the region suggest that the convergence between Arabia and Eurasia has been<br />

accommodated mainly through NW-trending right-lateral strike-slip faults in this region. These strike-slip<br />

faults appear to be the southeastern continuation of the North Tabriz fault and other right-lateral faults<br />

in SE Turkey. We combine results from the relocation of over 300 earthquakes with studies on<br />

geomorphic features to constrain active structural deformation in the Zanjan region. The seismic data<br />

were recorded by the University of Tehrans local short period networks during the period 1996-2005.<br />

The relocation process resulted in a revised seismicity map of the region. According to this new map,<br />

most of the seismicity in the region is concentrated on the fault zones of Talesh, Rudbar, Manjil and<br />

Taleghan in the northwestern edge of the region. While the Soltanieh, Zanjan and Mahneshan fault<br />

zones in the central parts, appear to be much more quiescent than were previously thought to be. On<br />

the other hand, geomorphic features show clear evidence of activity of these faults. Offset stream beds<br />

indicate right-lateral strike-slip motion along the NW-trending Soltanieh, Mahneshan and Manjil fault<br />

zones. The fact that the WNW trending active left-lateral Rudbar, Ipak, North Tehran, Mosha and<br />

Taleghan faults run sub-parallel to these right-lateral strike-slip faults suggests that shortening across<br />

the northwestern part of central Iran is accommodated by eastward relative motion of several crustal<br />

wedges bounded by conjugate dextral and sinistral strike-slip fault systems. This scenario is very similar<br />

to the proposed westward motion of the west-central Alborz. The existence of several active faults<br />

implies that this region contains an important seismic potential in spite of the fact that the Zanjan<br />

region has been seismically inactive during the last millennia.<br />

Keywords: active deformation, seismicity, fault

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