A research team is investigating the influence of the Zagros Mountains on the bending of Earth’s surface.
A team of international researchers, led by the University of Göttingen, has studied how the forces exerted by the Zagros Mountains in the Kurdistan region of Iraq have influenced the bending of the Earth’s surface over the past 20 million years.
Their findings reveal that, deep beneath the Earth’s surface, the Neotethys oceanic plate—once the seafloor between the Arabian and Eurasian continents—is currently breaking off in a horizontal direction. This rupture is gradually extending from southeast Turkey to northwest Iran. The study highlights how deep-seated geological processes within the Earth’s interior shape the planet’s surface. The research was published in Solid Earth.
When two continents converge over millions of years, the oceanic floor between them slides to great depths beneath the continents. Eventually, the continents collide, and masses of rock from their edges are lifted up into towering mountain ranges.
Over millions of years, the immense weight of these mountains causes the Earth’s surface around them to bend downward. Over time, sediments eroded from the mountains accumulate in this depression, forming plains such as Mesopotamia in the Middle East. The researchers modeled the downward bend of the Earth’s surfaces based on the Zagros Mountain’s load where the Arabian continent is colliding with Eurasia.
Unexpected Depth of the Earth’s Surface Depression
They combined the resulting size of the depression with the computed topography based on the Earth’s mantle to reproduce the unusually deep depression in the southeastern segment of the study area. The researchers found that the weight of the mountains alone cannot account for the 3-4 km deep depression that has formed and been filled with sediment over the past 15 million years.
“Given the moderate topography in the north-western Zagros area, it was surprising to find out that so much sediment has accumulated in the part of the area we studied. This means the depression of the land is greater than could be caused by the load of the Zagros Mountains,” said Dr. Renas Koshnaw, lead author and Postdoctoral Researcher at Göttingen University’s Department of Structural Geology and Geothermics.
Researchers propose that this is caused by the additional load of the sinking oceanic plate that is still attached to the Arabian plate. Koshnaw adds: “This plate is pulling the region downward from below, making space for more sediment accumulation. Towards Turkey, the sediment-filled depression becomes much shallower, suggesting that the slab has broken off in this area, relieving the downward pull force.”
The geodynamic model developed in this research will benefit other fields as well. “This research contributes to understanding how the Earth’s rigid outer shell functions,” explains Koshnaw. Such research can lead to practical applications in the future by providing information for exploring natural resources such as sedimentary ore deposits and geothermal energy, and better characterization of the earthquake risks.
Reference: “The Miocene subsidence pattern of the NW Zagros foreland basin reflects the southeastward propagating tear of the Neotethys slab” by Renas I. Koshnaw, Jonas Kley and Fritz Schlunegger, 25 November 2024, Solid Earth.
DOI: 10.5194/se-15-1365-2024
This research was made possible thanks to funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.
30 Comments
Any updates and findings for Vanuatu in the south pacific region?
No.
I appreciate your incredible geographical research and findings where you have greatly impacted my knowledge positively.
I know that these geologic pandemics will continue until someone embraces the fact that there are at least two distinct operating modalities giving rise to the ever present threat to humanity. The planet Earth is the geophysical milieu, hence the foundational contribution with its own history. The other is the paleontology’s contribution to the dual existence make for a destabilizing and dysfunctional outcome. Desmosomes like bonds between the surfaces binding one to another are at best transient and have been subjected to many catastrophically. Biology has to be included in this conversation. Knowing it brings another dimension in order to understand what matters. Of course, much work is needed to attain the steady state that may stop the human threat.
Zagros is in Iran. Not Iraq.
Author’s geography knowledge seems to be weak
Actually, the Zagros Mountains extend into Iraq (and Turkey). Might want to brush up on your geography before calling someone else out.
To settle it once and for all, The Zagros Mountain is the heart of The Greater kurdistan.
The Greater kurdistan is also a province in Narnia.
And Narnia is in my closet.
Amazing research! Its clear, our earth is not invincible.
I have always been concerned about the testing of nuclear bombs and its potentially deep disruption to our planet.
Yeah …. get em
The Zagros Mountains are a mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey.
Source Wikipedia
The story starts out with Iran, but ended up using Iraq. Where the mountain range actually starts and ends depending on how you look at it.
Actually, nothing really happened millions of years ago, since the Earth and all its inhabitants were created over 6000 years ago by God Almighty. The mountains were formed within days during the great flood in Noah’s times. God opened up the earth and sent the first rain upon the Earth to drown everything He has created except for Noah’s family and every species of land animals which were saved in an ark, a huge boat that Noah built according to God’s instructions. As for the Antarctica and the Arctic- that’s where all the waters went when the flood ended, in over a months’ time the waters stopped coming out, then they went somewhere- God froze them in the North and South. That’s why they are frozen from freshwater, not saltwater. Other places that atheists claim have formed for millions of years, such as the Great Canyon- well, everything is explained by the flood…
People, just read the Bible to know the truth rather than believing myths about millions of years, which don’t actually make sense when thinking about it…
Pedantic much?
What could be the enefitable outcome if this continues farther down the line? Is it possible that this could have caused the other parts to drift apart resulting in a new ocean? I don’t know much about science, but I’m very curious.
Fortunately for me I never listen to the rubbish so called experts come up with. There are much bigger mountain ranges. Yet we never heard any of this fiction. I suppose it all depends on who is paying for the research. How much can be taken from government or universities who have rich people giving money to them. They have to use the money for something. Remind me of how they use Co2 and fear. When asked about what percentage of Co2 is in the atmosphere. They guess at between 5% to 8%. And they are wrong because in the last century it was 0.03% it is now 0.04% now.
i always pray for coming of big asteroid to destroy our planet to get rid of all living creatures and end this catastrophe
Not all living creatures, just the humans and all constricting snakes.
Map is wrong there is no Palestine only Israel
Show me on the map where you have been touched
There is a whole Special Olympics taking place here.
I’ll be shocked if I hear anything funnier today. You made me spit my cashews out…was not expecting to laugh like that reading comments on a geology article. Thanks!
Give it a year and there won’t be any palestine.
no-israel and palestine together in peace and friendship
You will find it out soon
So where was there time for the dinosaurs to have evolved and then gone extinct. It is amazing to we evolutionists to see how utterly dumb those Bible thumpers can be! All they do is plead the case for Biblical creation without making reference to the hard facts of science that are patently obvious all around them, I suspect that about half the people in the USA believe creationist nonsense—what a failure of American education.
Everyone gets all upset over the most ridiculous things. That we cannot control. Why don’t we get upset about the jet fuel that is being dumped on the entire planet 24/7? No one has ever even mentioned it????
Jet Fuel, Yumm!
That’s dumb!