Salt Activity and Halokinesis in the Zagros Fold-thrust Belt and Persian Gulf (Iran)

At eastern tip of the Zagros fold thrust belt (ZFTB) and Persian Gulf numerous salt diapirs emerged which originated from pre-Cambrian–early Cambrian Hormuz salt layer. We show that almost all the diapirs were already active prior to Zagros folding either as emergent diapirs forming islands or as buried domes initiated at as early as the Lower Paleozoic. They have been reactivated by subsequent sedimentary supply, tectonic events and surface erosion. A quite continuous halokinesis exists since the early Paleozoic, i.e. just after the deposition of the Hormuz salt, up to the present. In fact, each salt diapir shows individual evolution depending of their position in the system. Abundance of emergent salt diapirs and presence of recycled Hormuz debris mostly in the Miocene in the onshore suggest that during the Zagros folding nearly all salt diapirs has been emerged.