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fowzia@alsakhriconsult.com Dr. Fowzia Abdullah Geology of the Arabian Gulf and Failaka Island-Review
Petroleum Geology Consultant
ALNAFT ALSAKHRI consultancy
Geology of the Geology of ter topography of the Arabi-
Arabian Gulf the Arabian Gulf an Gulf )Gunatilaka, 1986(.
The sedimentary rocks are
The Arabian Gulf is a north- tilted eastward from the
west south-east oriented Arabian Shield facing the
shallow sea with an open Zagros Mountains. The Ara-
connection with the Indian bian side of the Gulf has rel-
Ocean. It has an area of atively smooth geologic
about 241,000 km2 with av- structures and is basically
erage depth of 50 meter resulted from the orienta-
while maximum depth is tion and movements of the
110 m near Hormuz as com- Precambrian basement
pared to the depth of 90 m rocks, compared to the Ira-
in the Gulf of Oman )Fig. nian side which is resulted
1-A(. The slope of the Gulf from the collision of the Ara-
is higher on the Iranian side bian Plate with the Iranian
compared to the Arabian Plate )Alsharhan and Nairn,
side. 1997(.
The Geology of the Arabian The Arabian Gulf is a syn-
Gulf is a function of its loca- clinal structural depression
tion between the Arabian in the continental crust
Shield and the Zagros folds. where the sea water of the
The eastern Iranian side of Arabian Sea progress for-
the Gulf is more affected by ward filling this depression
the Zagros orogeny than during global sea level rise.
the western Arabian side The Arabian Peninsula and
)Alsharhan and Nairn, Iran area during 20000 BP
1997(. The intersection of were connected by land as
the Arabian folds with the a result of glaciation which
Zagros folds has shaped caused a global drop in sea
the present-day bottom wa- level and as a result the
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