--> ABSTRACT: Tectonic Controls on the Stratigraphic Architecture and Hydrocarbon Systems of the Arabian Plate, by George J. Grabowski Jr., Ian O. Norton; #91020 (1995).

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Tectonic Controls on the Stratigraphic Architecture and Hydrocarbon Systems of the Arabian Plate

George J. Grabowski Jr., Ian O. Norton

Arabian Platform sediments consist of major sequences separated by tectonically-controlled unconformities. These tectonic events, at the plate margins, controlled the orientation and distribution of sedimentary facies on the stable platform. Eustacy and subsidence were the principle controls on the actual facies that formed.

After the Hercynian tectonic event, the Arabian Plate was a lowland tilted to the north. Permo-Carboniferous, and Upper Permian to Triassic rocks covered the entire platform. Lower Jurassic rifting of India from Africa/Arabia raised the southern and eastern margins, causing erosion to the Cambrian in places. During Jurassic time, clastic sediments filled in lows and then carbonates covered the platform. A delicate balance between subsidence, eustatic sea level and tectonic elevation created a silled intrashelf basin in which organic-rich rocks were deposited.

At the end of the Jurassic, eastward tilting, probably caused by rifting in the Mediterranean, resulted in north-south trending bands of parallic clastics that prograded across the carbonate shelf. Renewed Mediterranean rifting in Aptian time caused subsidence of parts of the platform, forming new intrashelf basins that persisted through the Middle Cretaceous.

A plate reorganization in the Turonian led to ophiolite obduction and uplift of the northern and eastern margins. Through Tertiary time, the approaching Asian plate formed a linear foredeep, which was folded and thrusted during the Miocene collision of Arabia and Asia.

In this presentation, geologic history summarized above will be illustrated with a video animation of paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the Arabian platform.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995