STRATIGRAPHY AND STRUCTURES OF THE NAHAVAND REGION IN WESTERN IRAN, AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ZAGROS TECTONICS

Several rock stratigraphic successions, metamorphosed and non-metamorp hosed, are found to be similar and/or identical with each other across the so-called 'Main Zagros Thrust'. Stratigraphic successions form th in allochthonous sheets carried from northeast to southwest by numerou s low-angle thrust faults of either ductile to brittle-ductile type or brittle type. Similarities in lithic and faunal characteristics of th e stratigraphic units and in the style of structural deformation acros s the 'Main Zagros Thrust' imply that either the suture between the Af ro-Arabian and Iranian lithospheric plates is not located in the Nahav and region or, if it is, it must be buried under several thrust sheets .