Light & Tight in the Empty Quarter: Cretaceous Carbonate Source Rocks in the South Rub al Khali Basin, Saudi Arabia

The Cretaceous period saw the development of a vast epeiric platform covering the margin of the Arabian Plate and facing the NeoTethys Ocean. Sea levels were 150-200 m higher than present with many continental margins covered by broad shallow seas. These seas along the NeoTethys margin were dominantly carbonate platforms stretching westward from Arabia across Egypt and Tunisia. The Cretaceous deposits of the Arabian Peninsula show an evolution from a shelf margin to an epeiric platform.