Kharazmi Journal of Earth Sciences

Extending in the Zagros range, the Hormuz Series are known as the world's oldest evaporative unit. Movements related to the salt structures are one of the unique phenomena associated with Hormuz Series, which could be observed in different regions of the Zagros range. Owing to the poor outcrops of Hormuz Series, the surface evidence to assess effects of the salt tectonics is not enough, therefore subsurface data are very useful for in this regard. The isopach maps produced by the National Iranian Oil Company as well as the distribution maps of salt domes between the Kazerun and Minab faults are used to examine the effect of salt tectonics on the sedimentary setting of the Fars Basin and Bandar-Abbas hinterland from the Permian time up to the present. Accordingly, the Isopach curves are digitized in GIS environment, then the negative 3D map [before deposition] and positive [after deposition] are obtained in SURFER software. The study of changes in Late Permian to Miocene period sequences as results of salt dome activity shows that the first movements of salt domes in this area has incepted in Permo-Triassic time synchronous with the opening of Neotethys Ocean. During the period of Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous some of the salt domes have been buried and tangible actions that altered the sedimentary system, is not happening. The second main pulse of the salt dome activity coincides with the development of the Zagros foreland in the Upper Cretaceous. The peak activity of the salt domes and their impact on the sedimentary setting happened simultaneously with the final development of the Zagros foreland basin in the time frame of the Paleocene-Eocene. In Oligocene to Miocene times the salt domes were active, especially in the southeastern part of the range. This study seeks to investigate the salt domes and the result of their uplift on the sedimentary settings in the Fars basin.