Magnetic fabrics and microstructures of the Jurassic Shah-Kuh granite pluton (Lut Block, Eastern Iran) and geodynamic inference

The Jurassic Shah-Kuh granite pluton was emplaced in the northeastern part of the Lut Block (Eastern Iran) while this block was a part of the active margin under which the Tethys ocean, that separated Arabia from Central Iran, was subducting. Since this time, the Lut Block has rotated and migrated northward up to its present position. This structural study of the Shah-Kuh aims at strengthening the evidence of its original geodynamical location. Thanks to a systematic collection of oriented samples in the field, well-defined fabric and microstructural patterns were deduced from magnetic fabric measurements and optical microscopy observations. The overall magnetic fabric of the pluton yields vertical, north–south striking foliations and shallow lineations plunging to the north. The corresponding microstructures attest to their formation in the magmatic stage, i.e. during emplacement. Subsequent deformation, characterized by (sub)mylonitic microstructures, has modified the original fabric into a northwest and locally a west–northwest trend inside a two kilometre-wide corridor. This corridor reflects the trace of a sinistral shear zone that offsets the previous north–south magmatic pattern of the pluton. The latter magmatic pattern is proposed to result from the shear component of strain that was parallel to the ancient active margin during pluton emplacement, as a result of strain partitioning, a situation frequently documented at convergent margins. Sinistral shear along an ∼ E–W directed south-facing active margin, assuming a northeastward slip vector for the Tethys ocean during the Jurassic, and accepting a ∼ 150° counterclockwise rotation of the Lut Block after emplacement of the Shah-Kuh pluton, best explains both the magmatic and the solid-state lineation patterns.