Mesozoic rift basins of Yemen

Abstract

This special issue is the first compilation and review of the stratigraphy and basin evolution of the Mesozoic petroleum basins of Yemen. The volume arises from an international symposium on the ‘Sedimentation and Tectonics of Rift Basins of the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden area’ held at the University of Sana'a in September 1995. Papers relating to the Cenozoic rifting of the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and Gulf of Suez are to be published shortly (B. H. Purser and D. W. J. Bosence, Sedimentation and Techtonics of Rift Basins: The Red Sea-Gulf of Aden. Chapman and Hall, London, in press).Eight papers within this issue focus on basins within the interior of the country and the margins of the Gulf of Aden/Indian Ocean. The papers cover reviews of the developing stratigraphic concepts for these basins, outcrop studies and subsurface studies of recently explored areas by geoscientists from the U.K. oil industry and from U.K., Lebanese and Yemeni universities.