E-Book Content
QE 5 q ?"(,D :SCS 1+ +? rlfl!;4 GEOLOGY OF THE ARAB~PENINSULA ~\ Shield Area of Western Saudi Arabia U .S. CfEO LO G ICAL SURVEY PROFESSI AL PAPER 560-A The Earth from space. Africa and Arabia lie north of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, cloud-draped from the Antarctica Ice Cap to the Equator. A closer view shows northeast Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Arabian Sea. Photographs from Apollo 17 spacecraft at about 100,000 nautical miles from Earth. GEOLOGY OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA SHIELD AREA OF WESTERN SAUDI ARABIA FRONTISPIECE.-The Arabian Shield. As seen from space, the shield appea rs as a red crescent on the west side of the Arabian Peninsula and as a continua tion of the Sahara Desert extending across north Afr ica. Photograph fro m Apollo II spacecraft at about 98,000 nautical miles from Earth . Geology of the Arabian Peninsula Shield Area of Western Saudi Arabia By GLEN F. BROWN, DWI GHT L. SCHMIDT, and A. CURTIS HUFFMAN, JR . U .S . G E 0 LOG I CAL SU RV EY PRO F E S S I O N AL P APE R 56O-A Prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral R esources, Deputy Ministry of M ineral Resources, J iddah, Kingdom of Sau di Arabia A review of the geology of western Saudi Ara bia as refined from Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map I-2 70A, " Geologic Map of the Arabian Peninsula", 1963 u.s. UN IT E D ST AT ES GOVERNMENT PR INT I N G OFF ICE , WAS H INGTON : 19 89 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (7 U8R'"'·.~R~~~f~··~("S"\) 1. I ;" lS90 "IANUEL LUJA1'l , JR., Secretary / . . . .-1 . i u.s. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. P eck , Director Any use of trade, product , or firm names in this publicat ion is for descrip tive purpo ses only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government Library of Con gress Cataloging in Publicati on Data Brown, Glen Francis, 1911Shield area of Western Saudi Arabia. (U.S . Geological Survey professional paper; 560-A) "A review of the geology of western Saudi Ara bia as refined from U.S . Geological Survey miscellaneous geologic investigations map I-27O-A, 'Geologic map of t he Arabian Peninsula,' 1963." Bibliogra phy: p. Supt. of Docs. no.: I 19.16:560-A 1. Geology-Saudi Arabia. I. Schmidt, Dwi ght Lyman, 1926- . II . Huffman, A.C. III. Title. IV. Series: Geological Survey professional paper; 560-A. QE29I.S28B76 1989 555.3'8 87-600038 For sale by t he Books and Open-File Report s Section, U.S. Geological Surve y, Federal Cente r , Box 25425, Denver , CO 80225 FOREWORD This volume, "The Geology of the Arab ian Peninsula," is a logical consequence of the geographic and geologic mapping project of the Arab ian Peninsula, a cooperative venture between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of the United States. The Arabian-American Oil Co. and the U.S. Geological Surve y did the fieldwork within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and, with the approval of the governments of neighboring countries, a number of other oil companies contributed additional mapping to complete the coverage of the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. So far as we are aware, this is a unique experiment in geological cooperation among several governments, petroleum companies, and individuals. The plan for a cooperative mapping project was origina lly conceived in J uly 1953 by the late William E. Wrather, then Director of t he U.S. Geological Survey, the late James Terry Duce, then Vice President of Aramco, and the late E.L. deGolyer . George Wadsworth , then U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and Sheikh Abdullah Sulaiman, then Minister of Finance of the Government o