The Alpine deformation of the Central Oman Mountains

Abstract

Abstract The Saih Hatat, Jebel Nakhl, Jebel Akhdar and the Hawasina Window structures of the Oman Mountains developed as culminations above a major sole thrust associated with late stage emplacement of the ophiolite from the northeast onto the Arabian margin. The outcrop of a pre-Permian sequence in the cores of Jebel Akhdar, Jebel Nakhl and Saih Hatat implies that the major sole thrust is located within the pre-Permian succession. This thrust is emergent in the southern foothills of the mountains south of the Jebel Salakh Range. In the Hawasina Window, however, the thrust is at a higher level and is located within the slope and oceanic sediments. An extensional regime due to the gravity sliding of the Semail ophiolite is recognized from the occurrence of surge zones, extensional duplexes, extensional cleavage and gravity folds. The development of the extensional faults, which occur in the frontal, dorsal, lateral and oblique walls of the above culminations, may account for the absence and locally thinning of the Tethyan thrust sheets around the flanks of these structures. The extensional tectonic regime is also believed to be responsible for the final extensional nature of the ‘Semail Thrust’. The Oman Mountains foreland fold and thrust belt mostly consists of a series of thrust sheets of oceanic sediments (Hawasina) together with widespread exposures of syntectonic (Aruma) deposits. The belt is dominated by imbricate stacks of both Hawasina and Aruma units. These imbricate stacks have been folded around major culminations arranged in a characteristic en echelon pattern. Late Alpine (Tertiary) deformation is largely attributed to an extensional regime of culmination collapse. Folds and thrusts were developed at the leading edge of the extensional faults (surge zones). Tertiary folding and thrusting may reactivate the pre-existing Early Alpine (Late Cretaceous) structures.