This book combines interdisciplinary research results using structural geology, geophysics, sedimentology, stratigraphy, palaeontology, palaeomagnetism and subsidence modelling obtained through the MEBE (Middle East Basins Evolution) Programme and other groups in the South Caspian as well as in Northern and Central Iran. A great part of the volume is devoted to Northern Iran (Alborz, Binalud and Koppeh Dagh belts), dealing mainly with the Late Palaeozoic and the Mesozoic Era. Two papers present subsidence models of the South Caspian Basin since the Jurassic and three papers focus on Central Iran.
The data and models in this compilation of papers present a detailed picture and a very comprehensive understanding of the Late Palaeozoic to Cenozoic evolution of the South Caspian and North to Central Iran basins. Geodynamic evolution and sedimentation pattern were mainly controlled by the closure of the Palaeo-Tethys due to collision of the Cimmerian blocks with south Laurasia, the opening of the South Caspian Basin, and the Neo-Tethys ocean closure associated with Arabia-Eurasia collision.