The crustal shortening in the foreland of Arabian Plate (the Taurus and Zagros Mountains system) in N and NE of Iraq is accommodated in two principal ways: folding and thrusting. The fold and thrust patterns have evolved as an expression of shortening which was approximately NE-SW directed and subparallel to the bedding. In this area, observations of deformations along different cross sections were made using balancing cross sections for the estimation of the total shortening on five cross sections. The authors showed that shortening deformations were irregular and non-identical, which date back to the same age and the same location. This suggests that defects in this region are not homogeneous due to irregular bottom of the sedimentary basin, fault system and the form of the collision zone between the Arabian Plate and Iranian Plate or between the Arabian Plate and the Anatolian Plate. According to these magnitudes, the foreland region of Arabian Plate is affected by inhomogeneous deformations that are related rather to where these structures were developed, than to when they were formed. This study demonstrates the significant influence of geologic factor (especially structure) in forming and developing geomorphological features with a structural origin. These features are associated with tectonic history of the study area, such as units of structural origin. Another features related to the denudational factors, like glacis and badland, in addition to the features of fluvial origin which are alluvial fans, terraces and flood plains.
Crustal Deformations and Geomorphological Units of Arabian Plate Foreland Region, North and Northeast of Iraq
