Determining long-term slip rates in the Northern Zagros Fold-and-Thrust Belt (Kurdistan Region of Iraq) from tectonic geomorphology, structural modeling and OSL-dating

伊拉克库尔德斯坦地区(KRI)是扎格罗斯山脉褶皱冲断带西北段的所在地，该带由欧亚板块和阿拉伯板块汇聚而成。GPS数据显示，这两个板块之间的当前汇聚速度约为16至22毫米a-1，其中仅扎格罗斯山脉就消耗了约10毫米a-1。KRI的Zagros山脉是整个Zagros褶皱冲断带中被调查最少的一段，但它们在整个第四纪都有许多由构造引起的地貌变化的遗迹，例如连续的风隙和受断层相关褶皱周围地表隆起影响的河流阶地。我们调查的目标区域是大扎布河及其支流，它横跨Zagros主冲断带及其前缘山麓之间的西北Zagros褶皱冲断带。我们打算通过分析几个与断层有关的构造的地貌演化和用光激发发光法(OSL)测定隆起的沉积阶地的年龄来限制沿断层相关构造的地表隆升速率。结合断层相关褶皱的几何模型，我们将地表抬升速率转换为水平断层滑动速率。这种方法将产生平均在10到100 KYR的时间尺度上的长期收敛速度。

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) hosts the northwestern segment of the Zagros Mountains fold-and-thrust belt, which formed from the convergence between the Eurasian and Arabian plates. GPS-data suggest current convergence velocities of c. 16 to 22 mm a-1 between these two plates, of which c. 10 mm a-1 are consumed in the Zagros Mountains alone. The Zagros Mountains in the KRI are by far the least investigated segment of the entire Zagros fold-and-thrust belt, yet they host numerous vestiges of tectonically induced landscape changes throughout the Quaternary, such as successive wind gaps and sets of river terraces affected by surface uplift around fault-related folds. The target area for our investigations is the Greater Zab River and its tributaries, which traverse the NW Zagros fold-thrust belt between the Main Zagros Thrust and its frontal foothills. We intend to constrain the rates of surface uplift along several fault-related structures by analyzing their geomorphological evolution and by dating uplifted depositional terraces with the optically stimulated luminescence method (OSL). In combination with geometrical models of the fault-related folds, we will convert surface uplift rates into horizontal fault-slip rates. This approach will yield long-term convergence rates that average across timescales of 10 to 100 kyr.