Foredeep Mesopotamia is a mobile tectonic zone with folds, faults, and diapiric structures buried underground. The region is an integral part of the Zagros Fold Thrust Belt, which lies between the deformational front of the Zagros orogenic belt and the stable interior of the Arabian Platform.
The major faults separating these zones are the main Zagros fault (MZF), high Zagros fault (HZF), Zagros Mountain Front Fault (ZMFF), and Zagros deformation front (ZDF) (Vergés et al., 2011). Many authors have studied these faults. The main faults in Zagros that have occurred in this region are as follows:
The Main Recent Fault (MRF)
The main recent fault is an active, right-lateral strike-slip fault that generally follows the trend of the MZT (Berberian, 1995; Tchalenko and Braud, 1974), delimiting the Zagros to the Northeast and is separated from the ZFTB by the center of Iran (Berberian and Yeats, 2001) (Figure3.2 a). The lateral right slip movement between Arabia and central Iran occurs along various segments of the MRF in western Iran (Jackson, 1992). The strike-slip movement from the MRF appears to be transmitted to the right-lateral Kazerun and Karebass faults in the NS (Authemayou et al., 2009). This fault is characterized by high-magnitude seismicity and has an average slip rate of 40 mm/yr. Based on earthquake focal mechanism analysis, it is proposed that oblique convergence is partitioned into right-lateral strike-slip faulting on the MRF and shortening perpendicular belts. A right-lateral strike-slip offset of 50 km on the Main Recent Fault is compatible with the restoration of drainage, geological markers, and the length of the pull-apart basins (Talebian and Jackson, 2004)
The high Zagros thrust belt
This fault divides the Zagros Imbricate Zone from the Zagros Folded Zone. The active rocks along this segmented reverse fault, Paleozoic rocks, were vertically displaced by 6 km. The displacement along this segmented reverse fault exposed sedimentary cover strata in both directions of the HZF. The level of exposure of the sedimentary cover strata in both directions of the HZF is evident due to this displacement. There is some seismic activity with strike-slip focal mechanism solutions. There is some seismic activity with strike-slip focal mechanism solutions (Berberian, 1995).
