Iran Continental Tectonics and Inferred Seismic Hazard A Franco-Iranian Collaborative Program

Since 1997, we established a collaborative program between several French and Iranian institutions (CEREGE-Aix-Marseille, Département des Sciences de la Terre-Cergy-Pontoise, Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre-Strasbourg, Geological Survey of Iran-Tehran, Géosciences- Rennes, Institute of Geophysics of the University of Tehran-Tehran, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology-Tehran, Laboratoire de Géodynamique de Chaînes Alpines-Grenoble, Laboratoire de Géologie de l'ENS-Paris, Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique-Grenoble, Laboratoire de Tectonique et Sédimentologie-Montpellier, Laboratoire de Tectonique-Paris, National Cartographic Center-Tehran). The main aim of the program is to address several questions related to continental tectonics in a plate convergence environment and to infer boundary conditions for seismic hazard assessment. We conducted integrated studies, using complementary approaches (tectonics, satellite geodesy, seismology, soil mechanics, and civil engineering) on specific tasks related to continental tectonics and the inferred seismic risk in several regions. We designed a GPS network to measure, and map the distribution of, the deformation that is accommodated in Iran at a broad scale. We worked in the Northern Zagros, Central Zagros, and the transition between the Zagros and the Makran subduction. We also worked in the Central Alborz and more specifically in the area of Tehran where we studied site effects responsible of ground motion amplification. In most of these places we get quantitative measurements about the location of the active faults, the amount of displacement rates, the type of deformation. In this lecture, we show a summary of different results that will be presented in greater details in several sessions