Seismic tomography revealed two slab tears beneath southeastern Iran, offering rare evidence of how the Neo-Tethys margin is shifting from oceanic subduction to continental collision.
At least 450 km of oceanic lithosphere remains subducted beneath the Makran zone, while continental lithosphere beneath the Zagros collision zone descends no deeper than 300 km, a contrast the authors link to east-southward tearing and detachment.
A second tear likely began near the Makran Trench-transform boundary junction and propagated southward as the continental plate advanced northward.
The study says the coexistence of those two tearing modes captures a short-lived early stage of plate-boundary transition, with implications for deformation and magmatism in the overriding plate.