Transient, synobduction exhumation of Zagros blueschists inferred from P-T, deformation, time, and kinematic constraints:: Implications for Neotethyan wedge dynamics

We present the first P-T, deformation time, and kinematic constraints on the only known blueschist facies rocks (BS) present in the Zagros (Hajiabad area). The BS were underplated below the Sanandaj-Sirjan zone and crop out as kilometer-scale bodies within extensive colored melange units marking discontinuously the Neotethyan suture zone. P-T estimates point to high-pressure/low-temperature (HP-LT) conditions around 11 kbar and 520-530 degrees C for the majority of BS, along a similar to 15 degrees C km(-1) gradient. Some exotic blocks in matrix serpentinite reached 17-18 kbar at similar to 500 degrees C. In situ laser probe 40Ar-39Ar radiometric age constraints on phengite cluster between 85 and 95 Ma and suggest that (1) synconvergence exhumation of Zagros BS from 35-50 km to depths <15-20 km was accomplished before 80 Ma, (2) BS exhumation corresponded to a transient process with respect to the long-lived subduction beneath Iran (similar to 150-35 Ma), and (3) age constraints for Zagros BS are 5-10 Myr older than for the nearby Oman HP-LT rocks and broadly coincide with obduction processes in the region (circa 95-70 Ma). We propose that the mechanical coupling across the Neotethyan subduction zone (NSZ) beneath Iran was modified by the large-scale plate rearrangement accompanying obduction, allowing for a short-lived exhumation of Zagros BS. Exhumation ceased at the end of obduction, when subduction of the Arabian continental margin stopped. Kinematic calculations suggest that convergence velocities across the NSZ likely doubled (to similar to 5-6 cm yr(-1)) during the period 118-85 Ma, so that BS exhumation may have been promoted by a combination of obduction movements and increased convergence velocities.