Counterclockwise Converging Basement Fracturing Patterns Across the Arabian Peninsula and Eastern Iran

Abstract

Large-scale lineament swarms of great length (hundreds of km) and generally curvilinear geometry have been mapped on Landsat image mosaics. They are difficult to detect in the field because the feeble surface expressions of the individual lineaments are commonly camouflaged by surface features such as linear sand dunes and yardangs. Their tectonic origin and rejuvenating nature are suggested by several indications: 1) their smooth passage across adjacent domains that differ physiographically and lithologically (e.g. from a sand sea to a rocky plateau), 2) horizontal displacement of other linear features (e.g. monoclines) where crossed by the lineaments, and 3) a dominant trend of linear segments found within active drainage patterns. The trends of the lineament swarms are often independent of local structural trends, such as fold systems, but both the trends and the boundaries of the lineament swarms are related to major regional geosutures (Jordan-Dead Sea rift, Red Sea, Wadi Sirhan, Zagros Main Thrust, Rub Al Khali trough and its extension along the Oman Line).

In grand scale, the lineament swarms form counterclockwise curving and converging patterns. They almost completely encircle the Arabian massif, and branch off to the west from both the Mesopotamian trough toward the Dead Sea transform and from the Zabol Fault toward the Oman Line, thus forming two systems of arcs that are concave to the south across the Arabian Sub-plate and Eastern Iran, respectively. Similar patterns of lineaments found across the Sahara, northwestern Sinai, and Italy were attributed to differential movement between the mantle and lithosphere.