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Central Oman, Wahiba Sands and Al Wusta

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Book cover Geology of the Oman Mountains, Eastern Arabia

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Abstract

Central Oman includes the vast desert areas south of the main Oman Mountain range and north of Dhofar province (Figs. 14.1 and 14.2). This area includes the major oil field provinces from west to east, the Lekhwair High, the Fahud salt basin (Natih, Fahud, Yibal, Al Huwaysar oil fields), the Ghaba salt basin, including six surface-piercing salt domes, and the Haushi-Huqf basement high. Both the Fahud and Ghaba salt basins extend northwards up to, and even beneath, the mountain front, with minor salt intrusions penetrating the Hawasina and Haybi complex thrust sheets beneath the ophiolite recently found in the Hawasina Window and at Jebel Qumayrah (Chap. 9). The Fahud and Ghaba salt basins are separated by the NE-SW aligned Makarem High. The salt is the Proterozoic–Early Cambrian Ara Group salt that extends all across Arabia and northwards to the Zagros mountains in Iran where it is termed the Hormuz salt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK

    Mike Searle

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  1. Mike Searle
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Correspondence to Mike Searle .

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Searle, M. (2019). Central Oman, Wahiba Sands and Al Wusta. In: Geology of the Oman Mountains, Eastern Arabia. GeoGuide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18453-7_14

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