Together with gabbro, serpentinized pyroxenite and diabase and numerous radiolarian fossils, they form an ophiolite mélange from the Paleozoic, overlain by four kilometers of sandstone, clay, tuff and conglomerate.
The third exposure is on the left bank of the Amudarriya River, where 285 to 280 million year old cataclastic granite intrudes Devonian clay and carbonate sediments.
In the Paleocene and the Eocene, the North Mesotethys Ocean closed, forming the Shachrud-Nishapoor thrusted-folded arc and the Eastern Iran transverse folded system.
As Gondwana moved northward and interacted with Eurasia in the Paleogene, subduction began south of the current Zagros Mountains in northern Iraq and Iran.
Most gas reserves are held in structural traps in Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleocene rocks in the East Turkmenistan Turan Platform, at depths of 1.5 to five kilometers, within uplifts of the Turkmen Anteclise and Amudarija Syneclise.
The eastern region of Guardak-Kugitang has abundant potassium salt, halite and sulfur, while the Oglanly deposit in Great Balkhan in Eocene sediments is a major supply of bentonite.
[4] Oases supply the cities of Cis-Kopetdag and Tedzhen-Murgab with drinking water and groundwater is widely extracted for use in the arid oil fields, particularly the Yaschan freshwater aquifer at Uzboy.