Subsidence modelling of the Arabian platform from permian to paleogene outcrops

The burial history of Pennian to Tertiary sediments of the Arabian Platform is deduced from quantitative subsidence analysis. This permits the reconstruction of both the sedimentary depositional history and geodynamic evolution of the southern Tethyan margin. Lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic and sedimentologic outcrop data originate from, and were studied during, geological mapping in Central Arabia and the Oman Mountains. Correlations with two wells located in Central Arabia allow comparisons with subsurface modelling. In Saudi Arabia, the results of this extensive survey, over 1200 km long between lat. 18degreesN and 30degreesN, have been summarized in several synthetic profiles. Five profiles cover Permian, Triassic and Jurassic outcrops, and three profiles deal with Cretaceous and Cenozoic outcrops of Central Arabia. One synthetic section of the autochthonous series of the Oman Mountains allows correlation with the eastern area of the Arabian Peninsula. A structural reconstruction at the western edge of the Arabian Platform, from Late Permian to Late Jurassic times, is thus proposed along a north-south transect. The role of permanently active structural features that controlled sedimentation on the Arabian Platform is demonstrated for the first time. Subsidence modelling of the Permian to Jurassic succession of the Arabian Platform indicates several major tectonic events during the Late Permian, Early Triassic, Norian, Middle Toarcian and Dogger. However, custasy controlled sedimentation during the Late Jurassic. Strongly combined tectonic and eustatic influences were active during Cretaceous and Early Cenozoic times. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.