Oceanic plate between Arabian and Eurasian continental plates is breaking away

An international research team has investigated the influence of the forces exerted by the Zagros Mountains in the Kurdistan region of Iraq on how much the surface of the Earth has bent over the last 20 million years. Their research revealed that in the present day, deep below the Earth's surface, the Neotethys oceanic plate -- the ocean floor that used to be between the Arabian and Eurasian continents -- is breaking off horizontally, with a tear progressively lengthening from southeast Turkey to northwest Iran. Their findings show how the evolution of the Earth's surface is controlled by processes deep within the planet's interior.