upper mantle structures of the nw iran using 3d teleseismic tomography

The zagros mountain range is part of the alpine-himalayan orogenic belt, and has formed as a result of the convergence between the arabian and eurasia plates. most of the iranian plateau is affected by complex cenozoic geodynamic processesdue to subduction and closure of the neo-tethys ocean beneath the sw margin of central iran. this subduction followed by volcanism, slab detachment, possible mantle erosion in the overriding continent, and the final formation of the zagros mountain belt and related tectonic provinces. the collision between arabia and iranian micro-continent started in the earlymiocene (~16-23 ma) and final closure of the neo-tethys ocean is suggested at ~12 ma. the convergence of the arabianplateau towards central iran (~25 mm/yr) is accommodated by transpressional faulting in the middle and southern part of the belt, and slip partitioning in the northern part throughout the simple fold thrust belt (sftb) and the main zagros thrust (mzt). in this study, we perform a 3d teleseismic tomography using relative teleseismic p wave travel times to estimate the relative velocity structures of the upper mantle and part of the lower mantle of the iranian plateau to the depth of 800 km.