Doming along the Zagros transpression zone, SW Iran: insights from microstructural analysis of heterogeneous deformation.

Detailed structural and kinematic analyses of deformed structures in the Sanandaj-Sirjan Metamorphic Belt in the Ghouri area revealed the occurrence of three gneissic sub-domes with semi-elliptical shapes with their major axes parallel to the Zagros Transpression Zone boundary (NW-SE direction). These sub-domes are cored by sheared quartzo-feldspathic gneisses which surrounded by sequences consisting of garnet amphibolites, phyllites, phyllonites, muscovite schists, and deformed conglomerates. The Kuh-e-Zard, Chah-Sabz, and Chah-Goni sub-domes resulted from the interaction of the lower to middle continental crust and hot subducting Tethyan oceanic crust during subduction/continental collision. These sub-domes were squeezed between thrusts in the Zagros dextral transpression zone. The variations in the kinematic vorticity and strain estimates revealed that sub-simple shear transpressional deformation is highly heterogeneous in each sub-domes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]