Lithostratigraphy and Depositional History of Part of the Midyan Region, Northwestern Saudi Arabia
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GeoArabia, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1999 Gulf PetroLink, Bahrain Lithostratigraphy and Depositional History of Part of the Midyan Region, Northwestern Saudi Arabia G. Wyn Hughes, Saudi Aramco Dogan Perincek, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals David J. Grainger, Gulf PetroLink Abdul-Jaleel Abu-Bshait, Saudi Aramco and Abdul-Rahman M. Jarad, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals ABSTRACT The Midyan region provides a unique opportunity in which to examine exposures of the Upper Cretaceous and Neogene sedimentary succession. Recent investigations have yielded new interpretations of its depositional environments, stratigraphic relationships, and structure. In this paper, all the lithostratigraphic units of the Midyan succession are considered to be informal in advance of an on-going process of formalization. The region is bounded to the north and northeast by mountains of Proterozoic rocks and to the west and south by the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea, respectively. The Wadi Ifal plain occupies most of the eastern half of the region, beneath which is a thick sedimentary succession within the Ifal basin. The oldest sedimentary rocks are the fluviatile Upper Cretaceous Adaffa formation and marine siliciclastics and carbonates of the lower Miocene Tayran group, unconformable on the Proterozoic basement. The Tayran group is unconformably overlain by the deep-marine lower Miocene Burqan formation that, in turn, is overlain by marine mudstones, carbonates, and evaporites of the middle Miocene Maqna group. The poorly exposed middle Miocene Mansiyah and middle to upper Miocene Ghawwas formations consist of marine evaporites and shallow to marginal marine sediments, respectively. The youngest rocks are alluvial sands and gravels of the Pliocene Lisan formation. A complex structural history is due to Red Sea Oligocene-Miocene extension tectonics, and Pliocene-Recent anti-clockwise rotation of the Arabian Plate relative to Africa on the Dead Sea Transform Fault. The Upper Cretaceous succession is a probable pre-rift unit. The Oligocene?-Miocene syn-rift 1 phase of continental extension caused slow subsidence (Tayran group). Syn-rift 2 was an early Miocene phase of rapid subsidence (Burqan formation) whereas syn-rift 3 (early to middle Miocene) was another phase of slow deposition (Maqna group). The middle to late Miocene syn-rift 4 phase coincided with the deposition of the Mansiyah and Ghawwas formations. The Lower Pliocene to Recent succession is related to the drift (post-rift) phase during which about 45 kilometers of sinistral movement occurred on the Dead Sea Fault. The structural control on sedimentation is evident: the Ifal basin was formed by east- west lithospheric extension; pull-apart basins occur along major left-lateral faults on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba; and basin-bounding faults controlled deposition of the Burqan, Ghawwas, and Lisan formations. Pliocene to Recent earth movements may be responsible for activating salt diapirism in the Ifal basin. Extensive Quaternary faulting and regional uplift caused the uplift of coral reefs to at least 6 to 8 meters above sea level. INTRODUCTION The Midyan Peninsula lies within the angle formed by the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea (Figures 1 and 2). The Gulf of Aqaba is the surface expression of the southern segment of the Dead Sea Transform Fault that connects the Red Sea rift zone with the Bitlis-Zagros subduction zone of southern Turkey. Offset magnetic anomalies (Hatcher et al., 1981) and sedimentary contacts (Quennell, 1958; Hagras et al., 1988) indicate between 100 and 105 kilometers (km) of left-lateral offset since the Cretaceous. 503 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geoarabia/article-pdf/4/4/503/4553220/hughes.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 Hughes et al. N Gulf of Suez Sinai Peninsula Midyan Peninsula Gulf of Aqaba Red Sea Figure 1: Oblique satellite image of the Midyan Peninsula relating it to its regional setting. 010 34°45'E 35°00'E Km Road Jabal as Sabil Jabal as Safra LS1 Al Bad' Ad Dubaybah ° d 28 30'N Ham i al ad WWadiadi IF W A al Kils L E A S Jabal TTayranayran T F Maqna massif A U a L m T Maqna a h g Wadi Ifal Jabal u Mundassah R I F Jabal A Musayr L C l a E Jabal ar Risha b N a T J R MIDYAN EAST A T TERRACE L L U F A A F LS2 L U A L IF T ° 28 15'N Ifal plain Jabal Kibrit Wadi Waqb Kial Figure 4 Aynunah Ra's Sheikh Al Khuraybah Humaid Figure 2: Satellite image of the Midyan region showing localities and geological features mentioned in the text. In this image, outcrops of anhydrite show up turquoise; LS1/LS2, major left-stepping faults (see p. 530). 504 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geoarabia/article-pdf/4/4/503/4553220/hughes.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 Lithostratigraphy, Midyan Region, Saudi Arabia Within the Peninsula is exposed a Cretaceous to Neogene lithostratigraphic succession (Figure 3) that can be directly related to the one described from the Red Sea by Hughes and Beydoun (1992) and to the stratigraphic scheme established informally by Saudi Aramco (Hughes and Filatoff, 1995; Johnson et al., 1995). High, rugged mountains of Proterozoic basement rocks form the northern and eastern boundary to the region and also the core of the Maqna massif in the west. Wadi Ifal supplies basement- derived sediments that are transported onto the Ifal plain and mask the underlying Cretaceous to Neogene deposits of the Ifal basin. The sedimentary rocks are exposed around the margins of the Ifal plain and on the flanks of the Maqna massif. Recent interest in the geology of the Midyan region follows from hydrocarbon exploration along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast. It was recognized that the region offers a unique opportunity to examine the lithofacies and biofacies that would otherwise be accessible only by drilling. Seismic and drilling activities by Saudi Aramco in the 1990s proved the existence of hydrocarbon-bearing carbonate reservoirs in the Midyan region (Kamal and Hughes, 1995). Fieldwork and satellite image interpretation in 1997 and 1998 concentrated on the structural relationships, lithofacies and biofacies variations of the exposed limestones in order to improve the understanding of the reservoir facies framework within the carbonate sequences. LITHO- TECTONIC MICROFLORA AND RED SEA AND AGE GP FORMATION LOGY EPISODES MICROFAUNA ENVIRONMENT GULF OF SUEZ Pleistocene Ifal Wardan NN Drift 1 20-21 Lisan Tg/Th Pliocene Inter-tidal Shagara Supra-tidal Post-rift / 2 Deep Marine NN Shallow Marine 12-18 late Miocene Ghawwas 3 South Gharib (Unassigned) ? Mansiyah Syn-rift 4 3 Larger Foraminifera ? Zeit Calc. Nannofossils ? middle Planktonic Foraminifera N19-N23 Miocene Marine Diatoms Hammam Faraun Tf Kial N9 Belayim Feiran Member Dinoflagellates A Sirdi Member 4 Baba Member Wadi Waqb N9 Maqna Jabal member B Shagar Member Syn-rift 3 Kareem Kibrit (Umm Luj N8 Markha Member member) Pollen Nutaysh N7 member Burqan 5 N6 Rudeis Subayti member Syn-rift 2 early N5 (Unassigned) Miocene NN2 NN3 NN4 NN5 Musayr Gharamul Member 6 (Yanbu) Nukhul Ghara Member Tayran 7 Al Wajh Syn-rift 1 Shoab Ali Member 11 Late Adaffa Cretaceous Various Suqah Pre-rift 12 Indeterminate Proterozoic basement Basement Figure 3: Lithostratigraphy of the Midyan region and correlation with the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez. All Midyan units are informal. GP = group; brackets ( ) indicate units absent from the region but part of the designated group or formation. 505 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geoarabia/article-pdf/4/4/503/4553220/hughes.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 Hughes et al. Nb Ntw Ntm Nb Nmk Ntm PL-Q Pcz Nmd N Nb Ntm Pcz Gulf of PL-Q Nmk Nb Aqaba PL-Q Ntm Pcz Nb PL-Q 28 20 Nmd U Pcz Pcz Ntm PL-Q D U Nb Ntm Pcz D Nmk PL-Q L1 U R1 Nmk D Nmk R1 U D R2 28 15 Nmk Nmn U U Nb D D Pcz PL-Q PL-Q PL-Q Pcz Nmw U U D Midyan-1 D Nmd Midyan-3 Midyan-2 PL-Q 28 10 Midyan-4 PL-Q 34 45 34 50 34 55 35 00 L E G E N D Ghawwas and Lisan formations Primary fault 05 PL-Q upper Miocene-Pliocene-Quaternary Secondary fault Km Mansiyah formation Third-grade fault Nmn middle Miocene (Original map prepared by Research Institute Lineament (bedding) MAQNA GROUP KFUPM, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) Nmd Dolomite Nmk Kial formation-evaporite middle Miocene Anticline Sandstone-mudstone Direction of fault slip Nmw Wadi Waqb member (Jabal Kibrit fm.) middle-lower Miocene U Up-thrown fault block / Nb Burqan formation D down-thrown fault block lower Miocene TAYRAN GROUP Musayr formation Left-lateral, right-lateral Ntm L1, R1, R2 lower Miocene faults (see text) Ntw Al Wajh formation lower Miocene Exploration wells Pcz Proterozoic basement Figure 4: Geological map of the western part of the Midyan region. 506 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geoarabia/article-pdf/4/4/503/4553220/hughes.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 Lithostratigraphy, Midyan Region, Saudi Arabia The 1:250,000-scale geologic map of the Al Bad’ quadrangle (Clark, 1986) provided the most comprehensive description of the geology of the Midyan region prior to the Saudi Aramco investigations. Combining the results of the recent ground investigations and the interpretation of satellite imagery produced a revised geologic map of part of the Midyan Peninsula (Figure 4). The lithological descriptions of exposures are based on recent work by Saudi Aramco geologists, supplemented by the Explanatory Notes that accompany Clark’s map. As the Proterozoic basement is of limited reservoir significance, it was not considered in any detail in the present study.