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Arabian Peninsula From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search "Arabia" and "Arabian" redirect here. For other uses, see Arabia (disambiguation) and Arabian (disambiguation). Arabian Peninsula Area 3.2 million km2 (1.25 million mi²) Population 77,983,936 Demonym Arabian Countries Saudi Arabia Yemen Oman United Arab Emirates Kuwait Qatar Bahrain -shibhu l-jazīrati l ِش ْبهُ ا ْل َج ِزي َرةِ ا ْلعَ َربِيَّة :The Arabian Peninsula, or simply Arabia[1] (/əˈreɪbiə/; Arabic jazīratu l-ʿarab, 'Island of the Arabs'),[2] is َج ِزي َرةُ ا ْلعَ َرب ʿarabiyyah, 'Arabian peninsula' or a peninsula of Western Asia situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian plate. From a geographical perspective, it is considered a subcontinent of Asia.[3] It is the largest peninsula in the world, at 3,237,500 km2 (1,250,000 sq mi).[4][5][6][7][8] The peninsula consists of the countries Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.[9] The peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 and 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and southwest, the Persian Gulf to the northeast, the Levant to the north and the Indian Ocean to the southeast. The peninsula plays a critical geopolitical role in the Arab world due to its vast reserves of oil and natural gas. The most populous cities on the Arabian Peninsula are Riyadh, Dubai, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait City, Sanaʽa, and Mecca. Before the modern era, it was divided into four distinct regions: Red Sea Coast (Tihamah), Central Plateau (Al-Yamama), Indian Ocean Coast (Hadhramaut) and Persian Gulf Coast (Al-Bahrain). Hejaz and Najd make up most of Saudi Arabia. Southern Arabia consists of Yemen and some parts of Saudi Arabia (Najran, Jizan, Asir) and Oman (Dhofar). Eastern Arabia consists of the entire coastal strip of the Persian Gulf. Geography[edit] See also: Geography of Saudi Arabia Africa, Arabian subcontinent (Asia), and Eurasia The Arabian Peninsula is located in the continent of Asia and bounded by (clockwise) the Persian Gulf on the northeast, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman on the east, the Arabian Sea on the southeast and south, the Gulf of Aden on the south, the Bab-el- Mandeb Strait on the southwest and the Red Sea, which is located on the southwest and west.[10] The northern portion of the peninsula merges with the Syrian Desert with no clear borderline, although the northern boundary of the peninsula is generally considered to be the northern borders of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.[10] The most prominent feature of the peninsula is desert, but in the southwest, there are mountain ranges, which receive greater rainfall than the rest of the peninsula. Harrat ash Shaam is a large volcanic field that extends from northwestern Arabia into Jordan and southern Syria.[11] Political boundaries[edit] The Peninsula The peninsula's constituent countries are (clockwise north to south) Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the east, Oman on the southeast, Yemen on the south and Saudi Arabia at the center.[10] The island nation of Bahrain lies off the east coast of the peninsula. Six countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman) form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).[12] Arabian Peninsula countries The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia covers the greater part of the peninsula. The majority of the population of the peninsula live in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The peninsula contains the world's largest reserves of oil. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are economically the wealthiest in the region. Qatar, a small peninsula in the Persian Gulf on the larger peninsula, is home to the Arabic-language television station Al Jazeera and its English-language subsidiary Al Jazeera English. Kuwait, on the border with Iraq, is an important country strategically, forming one of the main staging grounds for coalition forces mounting the United States-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Population[edit] Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1950 9,481,713 — 1960 11,788,232 +24.3% 1970 15,319,678 +30.0% 1980 23,286,256 +52.0% 1990 35,167,708 +51.0% 2000 47,466,523 +35.0% 2010 63,364,000 +33.5% 2014 77,584,000 +22.4% Political Definition: Gulf Cooperation Council and Yemen Sources:1950–2000[13] 2000–2014[14] Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1950 356,235 — 1970 1,329,168 +273.1% 1990 4,896,491 +268.4% 2010 11,457,000 +134.0% 2014 17,086,000 +49.1% 4 smallest states (area) of the Gulf Cooperation Council with entire coastline in Persian Gulf: UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait Sources:1950–2000[15] 2000–2014[14] Though historically lightly populated, political Arabia is noted for a high population growth rate – as the result of both very strong inflows of migrant labor as well as sustained high birth rates. The population tends to be relatively young and heavily skewed gender ratio dominated by males. In many states, the number of South Asians exceeds that of the local citizenry. The four smallest states (by area), which have their entire coastlines on the Persian Gulf, exhibit the world's most extreme population growth, roughly tripling every 20 years. In 2014, the estimated population of the Arabian Peninsula was 77,983,936 (including expatriates).[16] The Arabian Peninsula is known for having one of the most uneven adult sex ratios in the world with females in some regions (especially the east) constituting only a quarter of vicenarians and tricenarians.[17] 21-chromosome[edit] Distribution of J1 haplogroup Listed here are the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups in Arabia (Yemen,[18] Oman,[19] Qatar,[20] Kuwait,[21] Saudi Arabia[22] and the United Arab Emirates)[23][24][25] Haplogroup J is the most abundant component in the Arabian peninsula, embracing more than 50% of its Y-chromosomes. Its two main subclades (J1-M267 and J2-M172), show opposite latitudinal gradients in the Middle East. J1-M267 is more abundant in the southern areas, reaching a frequency around 73% in Yemen, whereas J2-M172 is more common in the Levant. J (L222.2) Accounts for the majority of (L147.1) in Saudi Arabia. It seems to be an exclusively Adnani marker.[22][26][27] Haplogroup J 54.8% Haplogroup E 17.5% R 11.6% Haplogroup T-M184 5.1% Landscape[edit] A caravan crossing Ad-Dahna Desert in central Saudi Arabia Ras al-Jinz in southeastern Arabia (Oman), also known as the 'Turtle Beach' AR-Arabian Plate, velocities with respect to Africa in millimeters per year Geologically, this region is perhaps more appropriately called the Arabian subcontinent because it lies on a tectonic plate of its own, the Arabian Plate, which has been moving incrementally away from the rest of Africa (forming the Red Sea) and north, toward Asia, into the Eurasian Plate (forming the Zagros Mountains). The rocks exposed vary systematically across Arabia, with the oldest rocks exposed in the Arabian-Nubian Shield near the Red Sea, overlain by earlier sediments that become younger towards the Persian Gulf. Perhaps the best- preserved ophiolite on Earth, the Semail Ophiolite, lies exposed in the mountains of the UAE and northern Oman. The peninsula consists of: 1. A central plateau, the Najd, with fertile valleys and pastures used for the grazing of sheep and other livestock 2. A range of deserts: the Nefud in the north,[28] which is stony; the Rub' al Khali or Great Arabian Desert in the south, with sand estimated to extend 600 ft (180 m) below the surface; between them, the Dahna 3. Mountains[29][30][31] 4. Stretches of dry or marshy coastland with coral reefs on the Red Sea side (Tihamah) 5. Oases and marshy coast-land in Eastern Arabia on the Persian Gulf side, the most important of which are those of Al Ain (in the UAE, on the border with Oman) and Al- Hasa (in Saudi Arabia), according to one author[31] Arabia has few lakes or permanent rivers. Most areas are drained by ephemeral watercourses called wadis, which are dry except during the rainy season. Plentiful ancient aquifers exist beneath much of the peninsula, however, and where this water surfaces, oases form (e.g. Al- Hasa and Qatif, two of the world's largest oases) and permit agriculture, especially palm trees, which allowed the peninsula to produce more dates than any other region in the world. In general, the climate is extremely hot and arid, although there are exceptions. Higher elevations are made temperate by their altitude, and the Arabian Sea coastline can receive surprisingly cool, humid breezes in summer due to cold upwelling offshore. The peninsula has no thick forests. Desert-adapted wildlife is present throughout the region. According to NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data (2003– 2013) analysed in a University of California, Irvine (UCI)-led study published in Water Resources Research on 16 June 2015, the most over-stressed aquifer system in the world is the Arabian Aquifer System, upon which more than 60 million people depend for water.[32] Twenty-one of the thirty seven largest aquifers "have exceeded sustainability tipping points and are being depleted" and thirteen of them are "considered significantly distressed."[32] A plateau more than 2,500 feet (760 m) high extends across much of the Arabian Peninsula. The plateau slopes eastwards from the massive, rifted escarpment along the coast of the Red Sea, to the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. The interior is characterised by cuestas and valleys, drained by a system of wadis.