Assessing Fault slip-rates in Central and Eastern iran

According ti GPS measurements, the right-Iateral shear between Central Iran and Afghan blocks amounts to 16mm/yr (Vemant et al.,2004) .A model based on very long-term estimates of fault-rates suggests the current shear orginated about 5 ma ago and has been accommodated by strike-slip faulting limited to the edges of teh Lut desert (Walker and Jackson, 2004). we have used high-resolutin SPOT5 and Quickbird images (Pixel saiz of 2.5 m and 0.6m, respectively) to measure recent cumulative offsets and estimate slip-rates over shorter time-periods that average only a few seismic cycles(Meyer and Ledortz, 2007). Recent offsets, a few tens of meters have been found along the Sistan faults east of the Lut, but also along the Deshir and Anar faults inside the Central Iran plateau(Figure 1a). The offset-morphologies postdate the last incisin of the network and are most probably of Holocene age(12-+2ka).