Year: 1990
Type: article
Abstract: One of the major results of the geologic mapping program of the Saudi Arabian Directorate General of Mineral Resources is the demonstration of ubiquitous Upper Ordovician glacial and periglacial, continental to subaquatic deposits in lower Paleozoic outcrops of Saudi Arabia. A precise link has been established between these deposists and the icecap that existed on the Gondwana palecontinent in Late Ordovician time. Two major phases of ice advance and retreat, each marked by a pronounced erosional unconformity, are recorded in central and northwestern Arabia, Graptolite zonation indicates that marine clay sedimentation began after the ice-cap melted : by middle Llandoverian time in central Arabian and by early Llandoverian time in north-western Arabia.Updated paleofacies maps have been integrated with lithologic comparisons in order to establish correlations between the deposits of central Arabia and those of other regions of the Arabian Peninsula, northern and western Africa, Turkey, Iran, and Syria. As a result of this work, the early Paleozoic geodynamic evolution of Arabia clearly belongs to the broader paleogeographic context of the Gondwana palecontinent and its margins.
Source: Episodes
Author: Denis Vaslet
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2974207299