TS9.4
The Arabian Plate and its surroundings – past and present
Convener: Frank Mattern | Co-conveners: Christopher Bailey, Ivan Callegari, Andreas Scharf
Displays
| Attendance Thu, 07 May, 10:45–12:30 (CEST)

The Arabian Plate recorded several plate reorganizations from the Neoproterozoic to present, including the Angudan Orogeny, Late Paleozoic rifting and Alpine Orogeny. Active tectonics are framing the Arabian Plate and produce a variety of structures including extensional structures related to rifting of the Red Sea and Gulf and Aden, strike-slip structures at the Dead Sea and Owen transform faults and compressive structures related to the Zagros-Makran collision zone. The Arabian Peninsula contains the planet’s largest hydrocarbon reservoirs owing to its geological history as passive margin of Gondwana during the Permo-Mesozoic. Moreover, the Semail Ophiolite as largest exposed ophiolite on Earth offers a unique example of large scale obductions and overthrusted sedimentary basins. This and the spectacular outcrop conditions make the Arabian Peninsula an important and versatile study area. Ongoing research and new methods shed new light on, e.g., mountain building processes and its geomorphological expression as well as hydrocarbon development/migration.

We invite contributions that utilize structural, geophysical, tectonically, geochronological, geomorphological, sedimentary, geochemical/mineralogical, and field geological studies from the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding mountain belts and basins. These studies may include topics dealing with structures/basin analyses of any scale and from all tectonic settings ranging from the Neoproterozoic until today.