TECTONIC AND STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF THE MESOPOTAMIA PLAIN

F.A. Fouad, Saffa; K. Sissakian, Varoujan

	TECTONIC AND STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION OF THE MESOPOTAMIA PLAIN
Iraqi Bulletin of Geology and Mining
Article 1, Volume 0, Issue 4, 2017, Pages 1-14
Authors
Saffa F.A. Fouad; Varoujan K. Sissakian
Abstract
The geological setting of the Mesopotamia Plain, which is a part of the Mesopotamia Foredeep within the tectonic framework of Iraq, has been reviewed and redefined according to the modern concepts of foreland basins, and new structural boundaries are introduced. The Mesopotamia Plain of the central part of Iraq is a large subsiding basin covered by thick Quaternary sediments of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers with their tributaries and distributaries. It has been receiving pre-Quaternary sediments from the adjacent rising mountains, in the north, northeast and east, and from the Inner Platform, in the west and south, too. The Mesopotamia Plain is an epicontinental basin formed above an earlier platformal and marginal basin. Accordingly, the Phanerozoic stratigraphic sequence of the basin can be broadly categorized into three major tectono-stratigraphic assemblages; Cambrian – Early Permian intraplate assemblage, Late Permian – Middle Cretaceous Neo-Tethys passive margin assemblage, and Late Cretaceous – present foreland basin assemblage. The Mesopotamia Plain is a mobile tectonic zone and contains several buried structures including folds, faults and diapiric structures. Recent tectonic activity of some of these structures is recorded through their effects on the Quaternary stratigraphy and present geomorphological landforms, such as abandoned river channels, active and inactive alluvial fans and topographic expressions of some active subsurface anticlines, all together indicating Neotectonic activity of the plain.

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