Kuhbonan Mountains or Kuhbonan Highlands, (Kuhbonan also pronounced as Kuhbanan), are a group of mountains that are located in the northern part of Kerman Province in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Stretching in a northwest-southeast direction, the mountain range is situated in northwestern, eastern, and southeastern part of the city of

Kerman Kerman ( fa, كرمان, Kermân ; also romanization of Persian, romanized as Kermun and Karmana), known in ancient times as the satrapy of Carmania, is the capital city of Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2011 census, its population was 821,394, in ...

, northeast of the town of Zarand, and southwest of the town of

Ravar Ravar ( fa, راور, also Romanized as Rāvar) is a city and capital of Ravar County, Kerman Province, Iran. Ravar is the national carpet city of Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 22,910, in 5,921 families. Ravar produces a distinct ...

. With an elevation of 4233 metres, the highest point of the range is Mount Pelvar (Kuh-e Pelvar) or Mount Palvar (Kuh-e Palvar) that is located southeast of the city of Kerman and about 25 kilometres east of the town of

Mahan Mahan or Mahaan may refer to: * Mahan (name) * Mahan confederacy, chiefdoms in ancient Korea * Mahan, Iran, a city in Kerman Province * Mahan District, an administrative subdivision of Kerman Province * Mahan Rural District, an administrative subdi ...

Geology

Kuhbonan Mountain Range was formed mainly in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

during the Alpine orogeny as the

Arabian Plate The Arabian Plate is a minor tectonic plate in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. It is one of the three continental plates (along with the African and the Indian Plates) that have been moving northward in geological history and collidin ...

finally collided with the

Iranian Plate The Iranian Plate is a small tectonic plate thought to underlie the Persian plateau, covering the modern-day countries of Iran and Afghanistan, and parts of Iraq and Pakistan. It is compressed between the Arabian Plate to the southwest, the Eu ...

and consequently this region was pressed against the resistant Lut Block. Kuhbonan Range is made chiefly of

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

and

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

rocks in the northwestern part,

rocks in the central section, and

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

rocks in the southeastern region.

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

rocks are found mostly in the northwestern and eastern parts of the northern section, and in the southwestern and eastern parts of the central section of the range.Geological Map of Iran, National Geoscience Database of Iran, www.ngdir.ir

Climate

Because of high elevation, the Kuhbonan Range has a mountain climate, completely different from the hot semi-desert climate of the region.

References

{{Coord, 30, 14, 47.53, N, 57, 26, 21.37, E, display=title Landforms of Kerman Province Mountain ranges of Iran