Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman

In the Persian Gulf, two tectonic plates-rigid pieces of the Earth's crust-are colliding; the Arabian plate (lower left) is running up on the Eurasian plate (upper right). At lower left in the MODIS image is the younger Arabian plate, and it is moving northward to collide with the Eurasian plate. The Persian Gulf (top) and the Gulf of Oman (bottom) were once the site of a rift, a place where two plates pull apart from each other, and the Indian Ocean filled in the widening gap between the two plates; however, the process then reversed, and about 20 million years ago, the gulf began to close up. The collision of the two continental plates gives Iran its mountainous terrain. This image was made from data acquired on December 30, 2001.

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Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published December 30, 2001
Data acquired December 30, 2001

Source:

Terra > MODIS

Topic:

Solid Earth > Tectonics > Continental Tectonics