'THE GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF DHUFAR PROVINCE, MUSCAT AND OMAN' [‎28r] (45/96)

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IV. GEOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Structural Geology
57. In his valuable paper, ‘The Geology and Tectonics of
Oman and Parts of South-Eastern Arabia’, Dr. G. M. Lees has
briefly discussed the controversial aspects of the views of Krenkel
and Kober, and he considers that their ‘. explanations contain
an element of truth, and that the true solution is more complex
than either’. Broadly speaking and geologically, Oman, in my
opinion, belongs, structurally, to Asia, while south-western Arabia is
similarly a part of Africa (the separation from Somaliland, by the
foundering of the land and the formation of the Gulf of Aden, is of
comparatively recent date (Pliocene, perhaps), whereas the uplift
of the Zagros and Oman mountains is slightly older (upper Miocene ?)).
It would appear to me, also, that the faulting which is almost certainly
present along the southern coast of Arabia continues into the Great
Rann of Cutch and so has sliced or cut off any southward con
tinuation of orographic axial lines southwards from the ranges of
Sind (if these ever existed). However, these points are mentioned in
passing as they cannot be properly established without detailed
geological mapping (surveys) and this has still to be done. Dr. Lees
map shows how disconnected have been the investigations in south
eastern Arabia, and once greater fossil evidence is available for
establishing a reliable basis for correlation his list of geological
formations will reduce to half the number, as there are two or three
formations of similar age. • j • i c
58. In this connection the paper by Dr. L. Picard is also ol
considerable interest (see 1937, On the Structure of the Arabian
Peninsula’). He speaks of the Oman mountains, including the
Western Ha jar, as follows: ‘This mountain arc is a foreign element
on Arabian soil... The Oman range . . . betrays a pushing move
ment towards Arabia and belongs to the Iranian North Syrian
Alpine structure of folding ... one can assume from the descriptions
of Lees... that here also, i.e. in the West of Oman, there
exists a foreland of folds which pushes towards the depression o
Rub-al-Khali On the other hand these normal foldings follow
the bend of the Oman nappes. South of Muscat near Sur one meets
with a district of “regular folds” (Lees) which abut on to the Indian
Ocean ’ ‘The latest voyages of discovery of Thomas and Philby
further show that the subsoil of the actual Rub-al-Khali is
composed of Tertiary sediments quite analogous to those ot the