Cretaceous Carbonate Deposits of Neotethys Ocean in the Northwest of Iran

Cretaceous carbonate deposits are considerably extensively distributed in the northwest of Iran and form most of the paleohighs of the region and different Cenozoic sedimentary units have deposited over these units with angular unconformity. Cretaceous stratigraphic units of northwestern Iran can be divided into three main categories: clastic, shallow carbonate and pelagic. Clastic facies include conglomerate, breccia and fine-grained clastic groups and carbonate facies are composed of series of microfacies of open sea (A), bar (B), lagoon (C), and tidal flat. Relatively deep carbonate deposits with different trace fossils are also indications of deeper parts of the Cretaceous sedimentary environments in the northwest of Iran. With reference to the expansion of narrow Neotethys Ocean (Khoy-Zanjan), shelf margin sedimentary environments of Neotethys Ocean can be assumed for the Azarshahr-Tabriz region, where flysch and clastics facies in the coasts of Varaghan deposited towards the northern parts with increase of depth. Investigation on the expansion of narrow Neotethys Ocean by using different sedimentary facies during the present study is considered as an important step to complete paleogeographic data of Cretaceous time in the northwestern region of Iran and Middle East.