Abstract: Wave-Dominated Carbonate Ramps from the Kuwait-Saudi Arabian Coast of the Northern Arabian Gulf and the Northern Yucatan, Mexico

Lomando, A. J. - Chevron Overseas Petroleum

High energy systems in inner ramp settings are major targets for exploration and development in many of the world's prolific petroleum provinces like the Middle East and U.S. Gulf Coast. Two new areas have been studied to expand our understanding of ramp systems beyond the classic Trucial Coast (Persian Gulf) model and, when compared to some siliciclastic barrier island systems, demonstrate some very interesting similarities.

The Northern Yucatan Ramp extends from the Holbox barrier island complex on the east for over 300 km to the Chicxulub impact crater site (K/T boundary impact site) in the west. The overall depositional style is that of barrier island/spit accretion but detail examination shows that the system has three distinct variations.

The Kuwait complex is a 100 km stretch of coast along a gentle ramp punctuated by three headlands and intervening broad cuspate reentrants. Three headlands display Holocene prograding strand plain deposits consisting of ooid-skeletal-siliciclastic foreshore to beach/dune sequences. Reentrants consist of widely spaced, near continuous coastal ridges with inter-ridge sabkhas. Active and abandoned marine sabkha-tidal channel complexes are widely spaced and discontinuous.

Holocene deposits along the Kuwait-Saudi Arabian coast of the northern Arabian (Persian) Gulf and the Northern Yucatan Ramp compared to Abu Dhabi, UAE (the "classic" carbonate ramp model) led to a better understanding of the characteristics of tide versus wave-dominated carbonate inner-ramp systems.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90933©1998 ABGP/AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil