One of the major debated aspects of the Zagros orogenic system in the Middle East is the timing of onset of continental collision between Arabia and Eurasia. The Zagros hinterland in the Kurdistan region of Iraq contains an ~2-km-thick clastic depositional sequence of the Red Bed Series (RBS) that rests unconformably on the Arabian foreland and structurally below the Main Zagros fault, which carries the allochthonous volcaniclastic rocks of the Walash and Naopurdan groups in its hanging wall. Detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb geochronol- ogy constrains both the depositional age and the provenance of the RBS and pinpoints the timing of initial arrival of Eurasian sediment on the Arabian plate. The youngest DZ U-Pb ages for the laterally extensive (~150 km) basal RBS (Suwais unit) imply a middle Oligocene (ca. 26 Ma) maximum depositional age. The provenance data reveal dominant DZ U-Pb age modes of late Paleocene (ca. 55–60 Ma) and middle Eocene (ca. 37–44 Ma) and, importantly, the presence of ~10%–15% DZ grains that are unequivocally derived from Eurasia, includ- ing of Jurassic (150–200 Ma) and late Paleozoic (270–380 Ma) DZ age modes. These data suggest that the RBS deposits were mainly sourced from forearc- and/or arc-related terranes along the southwest margin and hinterland of Eurasia. We advocate that by ca. 26 Ma, Neo- Tethys oceanic crust had been consumed and that Arabia-Eurasia continental collision well was underway as indicated by deposition of strata with Eurasian provenance on the Arabian margin. These DZ U-Pb data from the RBS highlight the significance of provenance data from synorogenic deposits in revealing the timing of initial continent collision by document- ing the earliest arrival of upper-plate sediment on the lower plate.

/pdf/timing-of-the-arabia-eurasia-continental-collision-evidence-2e40aao0ey.pdf

Timing of the Arabia-Eurasia continental collision—Evidence from detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology of the Red Bed Series strata of the northwest Zagros hinterland, Kurdistan region of Iraq

Neogene shortening and exhumation of the Zagros fold-thrust belt and foreland basin in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq

https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1811&context=smhpapers1

Overview of the tectonic evolution of the Iraqi Zagros thrust zone: Sixty million years of Neotethyan ocean subduction

The Mawat ophiolite is part of the Mesozoic Neo-Tethyan ophiolite belt of the Middle East and is located in the Zagros Imbricate Zone of Iraq. It represents fossil fragments of the Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere within the Alpine collisional system between the Arabian and Eurasia Plates. The first U–Pb zircon dating of the Daraban leucogranite from the Mawat ophiolite provides a 207Pb–206Pb age of 96.8 ± 6.0 Ma. The age is 59.0 ± 6.0 m.y. older than the previously published age of the Daraban leucogranite obtained by 40Ar–39Ar muscovite dating method. The U–Pb dating of magmatic zircons collected from the Daraban leucogranite, which intrudes into the Mawat ophiolite, reveals that melting of the pelagic sediment beneath the hot Zagros proto-ophiolite in an intra-oceanic arc environment led to anatexis at the subduction front and the generation of granitic melts at 96.8 ± 6.0 Ma, which were emplaced in the overlaying mantle wedge. This process was a response to the initial formation of the Neo-Tethys ophiolite above a northeast-dipping intra-oceanic subduction zone at 96.8 ± 6.0 Ma. Published 40Ar–39Ar muscovite dating from the same leucogranite dike yields plateau ages of 37.7 ± 0.3 Ma, reflecting that the age was reset during the Arabia–Eurasia continental collision. Therefore, the bimodal age populations from the granitic intrusion in the Mawat ophiolite preserve a record of the subduction to the collision cycle of the Zagros Orogenic Belt. The 59.0 ± 6.0 m.y. age difference from the Daraban leucogranite represents the duration of the subduction-collision cycle of the Zagros Orogenic Belt in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the time span for the closure of the Neo-Tethys Ocean along the northern margin of the Arabian plate.

U–Pb zircon geochronology of the Daraban leucogranite, Mawat ophiolite, Northeastern Iraq: A record of the subduction to collision history for the Arabia–Eurasia plates

Provenance of the Walash-Naopurdan back-arc–arc clastic sequences in the Iraqi Zagros Suture Zone

K-Ar dating, petrography, and geochemistry of diabase dikes from Sidakan area, northeastern Iraq: Implications for petrogenesis and Neotethyan tectonics

Geological, geochemical, and geochronological investigations of the upper volcanics (UV) of Lower allochthon (LA) of Mawat nappes (MN) were used to elucidate the geologic relationships between the LA, the Qulqula Rise (ie, accretionary complex terrane (ACT)) and peripheral Foreland Basin Assemblage (FBA), (Maastrichtian–Paleogene) The 40Ar-39Ar geochronological data suggest that the Middle to Late Paleogene magmatic history of Late Walash arc volcanic activity of UV can be divided into an early phase of andesitic volcanism around 431 ± 03 Ma and subsequent extensional arc phase magmatism of a time lapse between 401 ± 03and 323 ± 04 Ma The geochemical data establish the existence of gradients in trace element ratios (ie, Ba/La, Th/Yb, U/La, Ba/Th, Rb/Y, Ba/Y, and Nb/Y) throughout the studied samples and reflect differences in the degree of mantle wedge depletion influenced by addition of a considerable proportion of sedimentary derived input of the subducting Arabian slab The trace, rare earth elements and isotopes of the studied samples have emphasized differences in the geochemical characteristics of andesites in comparison with other members of Walash The andesites have subduction-related signature with the isotope (low Nd and high Sr isotope ratios) characteristic of a melt component input from cratonically-derived sediments The diabases intruding in the basalts and andesites have a transitional composition from andesitic to N-type mid-ocean ridge basalts geochemistry with a noticeable subduction-related signature, and are interpreted to form in an extensional arc evolving into back arc basin setting As evidenced from infant arc magmatism (Albian–Cenomenian), MN recorded protracted kinematic at convergent plate margins with a most notable was the development of the ACT (ie, Qulqula Rise) adhered to the Arabian platform carbonates (Albian–Cenomenian) leading to the inception of peripheral FBA occurred by the erosion and unroofing of advancing ACT Notably, the volcano flysch of Walash and Nummulite carbonate of Naopurdan were still accumulating on the remaining oceanic lithosphere further to the northeast and in part coeval with Paleogene molasses sedimentation on flexural FBA further to the southwest of the ACT

The geochronology and petrogenesis of Walash volcanic rocks, Mawat nappes: constraints on the evolution of the northwestern Zagros suture zone, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

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K-Ar dating, petrography, and geochemistry of diabase dikes from Sidakan area, northeastern Iraq: Implications for petrogenesis and Neotethyan tectonics

The geochronology and petrogenesis of Walash volcanic rocks, Mawat nappes: constraints on the evolution of the northwestern Zagros suture zone, Kurdistan Region, Iraq