THRUST TECTONICS OF THE BINALOOD REGION, NE IRAN

The Binalood region in NE Iran, which is an eastern segment of the Alborz Mountains, is affected by thin-skinned tectonics. Lower Paleozoic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Cenozoic rock sequences as well as remnants of the Paleo-Tethys oceanic realm are transported in a southwestward direction by several thrust faults which are of two generations: (1) Cimmerian and (2) Alpine. Structural units in this region form either single thrust sheets or duplexes. They have been displaced sequentially in a piggyback style from the hinterland (NE) to foreland (SW) under ductile, brittle-ductile, and brittle conditions. Geometrically, they constitute an antiformal stack breached on its southwestern side by major and minor out-of-sequence thrusts.