Abstract

This chapter includes 11 cross-sections and one well log profile to show the depositional geometry and setting in specific areas around the basin: the Saudi Arabia outcrop belt; the Rimthan Arch; and the eastern and central areas of the intrashelf basin in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Oman. These cross-sections are used to demonstrate the similarity and degree of continuity of the upper Dhruma Formation, the Tuwaiq Mountain Formation, the source rock, the Hanifa, Jubaila–Arab and Arab–Hith formations and depositional sequences in these different locations in the basin. They show the manner in which the underlying platform formed, the rim developed, the source rock was deposited and the basin progressively filled. The blanket deposition of the Arab-D anhydrite was followed by the Arab-C to Arab-A and Hith carbonate and evaporite sequences. The cross-sections provide the framework used in subsequent chapters to make a series of facies maps and other interpretative diagrams and cross-sections that summarize and, for some intervals, revise the interpretation of the settings and geological events that formed the Arabian Intrashelf Basin.