shekasteh Gush Mir (33".28'N-58o.34'E: NW of Dagh-e-Mohammadabad,60 km SW of Qa'en, west of the Chah Raqsh fault),Shekasteh Haji Mir (34o.54'N-59o.13'E: 20 km north of the Jangalfault),Shekasteh Hezar ('Thousand Fractures/Highly Fractured or Faulted';33o.30'N-57o.03'E; 13 km SE of Tabas-e-Golshan town, along theTabas fault),shekasteh Kalvark ('Fractured/Faulted creek'; 33o.53'N-59o.45'E: 4.4 kmWSW of Kalateh Korizan, near the Abiz fault),Shekasteh Maleki (33".17'N-58o.50'E; along the Chahat fault),Shekasteh Miyandehi (34".49'N-58o.36'E; along the western segment of theJangalfault),Shekasteh Mohammadabad (in Mohamadabad Playa, 60 km SW of Qa'en),Shekasteh Sag Mordeh (33".43'N-60o.15'E: 11 km NE of Shahrakht),shekasteh Yunesi (34".48'N-58o.32'E; along the western segment of theJangalfault),Tang-e-Chak Chak ('Sliced Gorge'; 37.01'N46.52'E: at the eara Aghajdistrict, SE Maragheh),c) Frequent Occurrences of Landslides, Rockfalls and Earth Flows:Akhma Qayeh/Qayah (?'Fallen Rocl
?: The link with earthquake is not certain at this stage of the study.lV' orogeny (Mountain Building: the process of forming continents andmountain belts)"The earth shook and the subsfance of mountainswas created in the earth"(Bundahishn, Vl I l/1 :29)Mountains, the most spectacular issue of the geologic processesshapedthatthe earth's crust, defied comprehension for centuries. Scientists of pastgenerationstruggled to identifiT the forces that could have warped the earth,ssurface so dramatically. And they confronted a host of smaller mysteries asthewell:volcanic eruptions that shatter some peaks; the fact that mountains occurat randomnotbut in long, narrow belts; and the presence of fossilized sea creatureshigh mountaininslopes suggesting that some mountains has risen from primevalsea floors.Viewed from the perspective of 'plate tectonics', mountain belts seemawesomemorethan ever. The theory holds that they are a visible manifestationinch-by-inchof anmovement of greater slabs of the earth's surface layers. Thislong processages-not only pushes up mountains in crustal collisions of inconceivabteforce, it also creates and destroys oceans, and shatters and reshapes wholecontinents.ln Chapter Vlll of Bundahishn, on the conflict which the evil spirit wagedwith the earth (West 1890:2g; 30; Bahar 136}t1gg3:75) we read that: ,,as thespirit rushedevilin, the- earth shook [ionbid] and the substance of mountainscreatedwasin the earth. First Mount Alboz [Harabozeiti:"High Mountain,,]aftenrards,arose;the other ranges of mountains of the middle earth for as Alboz grewforth all the mountains remained in motion, for they have all grown forth fromthe root of Afborz. At that time they came up from the earth, like a treegrownwhich hasup to the clouds and its root to the boftom; and their roof passe d onway fromthatone to the other, and they are ananged in mutual connection.Afterwards, about that wonderful shaking out from the earth, they say that a greatmountain is the knot.of rands" (emphasis added). [cf. with the "Theory oiorog"ny,,introduced by American geologists James nalt (1g11-1gg5) and Jlmes DwightDana (1813-1895) in 18731. As recently as 1962, the origin of mountainremainedbeltsnaggingly obscure, and some geologists despaired of soon findingexplanationan(see the next section on continentaiorirt;.Vl. Continental Movement and DriftBiruni Kharazmi (September 973 in Kharazm-December 13, 104gGhazneh),inthe lranian scholar and scientist, was one of the most learned menhis ageofand an outstanding intellectual figure. Processing a profound and originalmind of encyclopaedic scope, Biruni was conversant with persian, Sanskrit,13
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