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Volume 7 Number 4
  • E-ISSN: 1365-2117

Abstract

Abstract

The full extent of Mesozoic rift basins within interior Yemen has only recently been established. This work presents a detailed documentation of the stratigraph)., structure and basin development of the Marib‐Shabwa and Sirr‐Sayun basins, and the Jeza Trough.

Yemen is located at the south‐western margin of the Arabian Plate, which for most of its early geological history formed part of the northern passive margin of Gondwanaland. Mesozoic break up of the super‐continent was associated with major rifting in the Late Jurassic (main phase) and Early Cretaceous. Orientation of the rift basins reflects an inheritance from deep‐seated Precambrian structural trends which cross the Arabian Plate.

The resultant structure of basement highs, tilted fault blocks, marginal terraces and central graben highs is illustrated in a series of detailed cross‐sections. A comprehensive stratigraphic framework has also been established for the Jurassic and Cretaceous basin‐fill, enabling thickness and facies variations to be analysed. This reveals a clear shift in the main period of fault‐related, high sediment accumulation rates, both within and across the three interior basins of Yemen.

In the western Marib‐Shabwa Basin, the fill is dominantly Late Jurassic, whilst the eastern Shabwa Basin and Sirr‐Sayun Basin exhibit a progressively increased, and younger, Early Cretaceous fill. The main period of fault‐related sedimentation in the most easterly basin, the Jeza Trough, is wholly Cretaceous.

Plate tectonic reconstructions of the area for this period have documented the separation and subsequent north‐eastward movement of the Indian Plate, away‐ from Africa‐Arabia. We believe this may have been the causal mechanism in the progressive eastward migration of rift activity in the Yemen.

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2007-11-06
2024-04-26

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