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BERBERIANANDKING 215
TABLE 1. Correlation chart of the major Paleozoic rock units, sedimentary gaps (blank areas), and unconformities (indented
lines) in Gondwanian Iran and neighbouring regions. Note that the stable platform shelf deposits are underlain by the alkali-acid
volcano-plutonic complex, which marks the late Precarnbrian’ intracontinental rifting. Data sources cited in the text. The rock
unit symbols used are the same as those used on the paleogeographic maps. H-Z: High-Zagros belt; S-S: Sanandaj-Sirjan belt
the High-Zagros Alpine Ocean to have been closing
(Section 11.4). The cause of this phase is unknown.
During and after the Middle Triassic phase of activity,
andesitic-basaltic volcanism and acid granitic intrusions
formed along the Sanandaj-Sirjan belt (the active
margin of Central Iran; Figs. 5 and 13), and presumably
represents the full establishment of the southern subduction
zone. The arc is partly exposed, being covered with
Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments, which have been
removed by erosion only in a few places. There is a
similar situation in the northern Hercynian belt in the
Kopeh Dagh. Its eastern continuation is completely visible
in northern Afghanistan, but in this case only one
small inlier (Aghdarband) is exposed in Iran (Figs.
and 12).
During the Mesozoic Era two very different environments
existed in the Arabian Zagros foreland and the
Iranian unit attached to Asia. The Arabian foreland is