Regional stratigraphy of the Zagros fold-thrust belt of Iran and its proforeland evolution

The latest Neoproterozoic through Phanerozoic stratigraphy of the Zagros fold-thrust belt of Iran has been revised in the light of recent investigations. The revised stratigraphy consists of four groups of rocks, each composed of a number of unconformity-bounded megasequences representing various tectonosedimentary settings. In the lowest group, ranging in age from latest Precambrian to Devonian(?), the uppermost Neoproterozoic to middle Cambrian rocks constitute a megasequence of evaporites, siliciclastic deposits, and interlayered carbonates, which were deposited in pull-apart basins that developed by the Najd strike-slip fault system. This megasequence is overlain by a second one, Middle to Late Cambrian in…