The 2012 August 11 Ahar earthquakes: consequences for tectonics and earthquake hazard in the Turkish-Iranian Plateau

We have examined the faulting in the 2012 August 11 Mw 6.4 and 6.3 Ahar (NW Iran) earthquakes using a combination of field mapping, remote-sensing observations of tectonic geomorphology, the cross-correlation of optical satellite images and the inversion of seismic waveforms. The first event was close to pure strike-slip, and the second was an oblique combination of thrust and strike-slip motion. Mapped surface ruptures indicate at least one of these events accommodated mostly right-lateral strike-slip motion on an ∼E–W striking plane. The occurrence of these earthquakes highlights the spatially distributed deformation in NW Iran, which has implications for both hazard assessment (the Ahar events killed over 300 people and injured over 3000), and also tectonic models of the region. Furthermore, these earthquakes demonstrate that the tectonics of the Ahar area is characterized by strike-slip faulting and a component of shortening, and not the previously suggested extension

A remote sensing-based discrimination of high- and low-potential mineralization for porphyry copper deposits; a case study from Dehaj–Sarduiyeh​ copper belt, SE Iran

This work seeks to implement surface indicators of porphyry copper deposits (PCDs) at known source regions and to apply these indicators to recognize high- and low-potential mineralization through remote sensing in other areas. Thirty copper deposits in central Iranian volcano-sedimentary complex, Kerman province, Southeast of Iran, which are different in grade and size, were selected as test sites. The abundances of alteration minerals at these deposits were discriminated using a partial sub-pixel unmixing algorithm, mixture tuned matched filtering  (MTMF), on Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data to find​ an indicator whether the abundances of alteration minerals correspond to the grade and size of each deposit. In general, comparison of sub-pixel abundances with known mineral occurrences showed a reasonable correspondence such that areas with high abundances of alterations corresponded well with important mineralized districts. It is concluded that suggested sub-pixel analysis of ASTER data leads to identifying alteration zones with high-potential mineralization in PCDs