Zagros Mountains

The Zagros Mountains (Persian: رشته كوه زاگرس‎‎, Kurdish: زنجیره‌چیاکانی زاگرۆس‎; Çiyayên Zagrosê, Lurish: کو یه لی زاگروس, Arabic: جبال زغروس ‎ Aramaic: ܛܘܪ ܙܪܓܣ,) form the largest mountain range in Iran, Iraq and Eastern Turkey. This mountain range has a total length of 1,500 km (932 mi). The Zagros mountain range begins in northwestern Iran and roughly corresponds to Iran's western border, and it spans the whole length of the western and southwestern Iranian plateau, ending at the Strait of Hormuz. The highest point in the Zagros Mountains is Dena. These mountains are regarded as sacred by the Kurds.

Geology

The Zagros fold and thrust belt was formed by collision of two tectonic plates — the Iranian Plate and the Arabian Plate. This collision primarily happened during the Miocene and folded the entire rocks that had been deposited from the Carboniferous to the Miocene in the geosyncline in front of the Iranian Plate. The process of collision continues to the present and as the Arabian Plate is being pushed against the Iranian Plate, the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian Plateau are getting higher and higher. Recent GPS measurements in Iran have shown that this collision is still active and the resulting deformation is distributed non-uniformly in the country, mainly taken up in the major mountain belts like Alborz and Zagros. A relatively dense GPS network which covered the Zagros in the Iranian part also proves a high rate of deformation within the Zagros. The GPS results show that the current rate of shortening in SE Zagros is ~10 mm/yr and ~5mm/yr in the NW Zagros. The NS strike-slip Kazerun fault divides the Zagros into two distinct zones of deformation. The GPS results also show different shortening directions along the belt, i.e. normal shortening in the South-East and oblique shortening in the NW Zagros.