Razmjooei, Mohammad J., Shahryari, Samira, Kani, Anoshiravan, Ullmann, Clemens V., Jamali, Amir Mohammad, Rahimi, Samira, Vergés, Jaume, and Thibault, Nicolas
[Display omitted] • The Gurpi Fm. age in SW Lurestan (Iran) is restricted to late Campanian-early Danian. • Gurpi facies variations in Lurestan were mostly controlled by tectonics. • The Lopha limestone in SW Lurestan shows the position of the forebulge. • Subaerial exposure of carbonate platforms led to persistent fine-fraction reworking. • Basin subsidence caused high sedimentation rates in late Maastrichtian- early Danian. In order to investigate the depositional history and facies architecture of the Campanian-Danian interval of the Zagros Basin, the succession of the Gurpi Formation (Fm.) was examined in the Gandab section, southwestern Lurestan Province, through an integrated study of calcareous nannofossils, planktic foraminifera, and bulk carbonate carbon isotopes. Despite the persistent occurrence of reworked fine fraction carbonates as attested by microfossils across the investigated interval, the carbon isotope stratigraphy of Lurestan shows a good correlation with those in the eastern and western Tethys from the Shahneshin section in central Zargos (Fars Province) and Gubbio of northern Apennines in Italy (Gubbio). The succession can be assigned an age range from late Campanian to early Danian based on the integrated stratigraphy. The results from the Gandab section, as well as field observations in more northeasterly areas of Lurestan, point to lateral facies variation of the Campanian–Danian interval associated with tectonic activity during the Late Cretaceous-Paleogene of the Zagros Basin. According to the known distribution of facies across the SW-NE transect of Lurestan and detailed ages delineated in the Gandab section, a schematic model of syntectonic sedimentation and facies distribution is drawn. Our model illustrates how the continental convergence and closure of Neo-Tethys resulted in uplifting/subsiding of the basin floor, shifting in depocenter, significant changes in sedimentary facies, and reworking phenomena in the Lurestan region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]