Late Palaeozoic glacial sediments of the southern Arabian Peninsula: their lithofacies and hydrocarbon potential

Abstract

Evidence of Late Palaeozoic glaciation is known in the southern Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Palynological assemblages date these beds as Late Carboniferous to Early Permian (Sakmarian). The lithofacies consits of diamictites, varvites with dropstones, sandstones, siltstones and shales, suggesting depositional environments ranging from grounded tillites to glacio-lacustrine to marine. Oman oil is reported to be trapped primarily in the sands (in Haushi Group clastics), which are sealed by the Cretaceous Nahr Umr shales. The source is presumed to lie in the Late Precambrian marine algal limestones.