The School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Presents Dr. Renas Koshnaw, University of Gottingen, Germany

Tracking the Cenozoic Zagros Mountain Building in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Surface Response to Deep Earth Processes

Deconvolving the tectonic processes that guide shifts in foreland basin architecture, dynamics of stratigraphic and sedimentary provenance, building of mountain belts and their exhumation is key to understand the linkage between lithospheric and Earth surface processes. Tectonic activities, driven by deep Earth processes, are extremely slow on a human time scale and only its most recent expressions can be studied directly. Therefore, deciphering the rock record of orogenesis through space and time is critical for understanding how the Earth works.

This talk will focus on assessing the surface geology expression of two end members of mountain building driving forces: slab-pull orogeny, where subducting slab is attached, versus mantle orogeny, where subducting slab is detached. To test these contrasting scenarios in the NW Zagros orogenic belt, results form detrital geochronology and thermochronology combined with structural synthesis and basin analysis will be presented.