Late Permian to Holocene Paleofacies Evolution of the Arabian Plate and its Hydrocarbon Occurrences

Abstract

ABSTRACT A series of 19 paleofacies maps have been generated for given time intervals between the Late Permian and Holocene to reconstruct the depositional history of the Arabian Plate. The succession of changing lithological sequences is controlled by the interplay of eustacy and sediment supply with regional and local tectonic influences. The Mesozoic paleofacies history of the Plate is, in its central and eastern portion east of Riyadh, strongly influenced by an older N-trending, horst and graben system that reflects the grain of the Precambrian Amar Collision and successively younger structural deformations. The late Paleozoic Hercynian orogenic event caused block faulting and relative uplift and resulted in a marked paleorelief. This jointed structural pattern dominated the entire Mesozoic and, to some extent, the Cenozoic facies distribution. The relationship between producing fields and the paleofacies maps illustrates the various petroleum systems of particular times and regions.