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Interpretations of Holocene Carbonate-Evaporites of Coastal and Inland Sabkhas of Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) from Landsat Satellite Images and Field Survey

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Sabkha Ecosystems

Part of the book series: Tasks for Vegetation Science ((TAVS,volume 49))

Abstract

Sedimentary features that characterize the coastline of Abu Dhabi include beach ridges, sabkha flats, algal mats, and mangroves associated with carbonate-evaporites that are tied field descriptions, photography, and satellite imagery. Knowledge of the facies content and geometries of these bodies is intended for as analogs of similar features recognized in subsurface regional sequence stratigraphy. This paper is directed at the local and international geological and hydrocarbon exploration community, especially those starting their career.

Through much of the Quaternary, the local climate and depositional settings favored the accumulation of bedded carbonates associated with minor clastics and evaporates. Accommodation for these sediments was controlled by cycles of transgression and regression through minor epeirogenic movements and the glacial eustatic sea-level fluctuations common to the Pleistocene and Holocene.

Holocene sedimentary facies of the coastal area include offshore pelecypod shell gravels, onshore coral reefs, coralgal sands, oolite shoals, inshore grapestones and pelleted lime muds, and cyanobacterial mats and mangrove swamps flanked by sabkha salt flats filled by a mix of calcareous silts and muddy calcareous sands with some aeolian quartz, displacive sulfate nodules, and crystals capped by halite crusts. Storm and spring tides and infrequent wadi runoff cause periodic flooding of these salt flats. The Holocene coastal facies complex onlaps Pleistocene aeolian cross-bedded carbonate sands rich in miliolids and shell fragments. Landward these in turn onlap exposures of Miocene mixed siliciclastics, carbonates. From southeast to west, the inland area of desert is dominated by a mix of extensive gravel plains onlapped by the product of prevailing winds, a variety of aeolian sand dunes of different sizes and forms, enclosing inland sabkhas, and scattered mesas of Neogene. Sabkhat Matti, a large inland lowland sabkha, extends inland from the coast some 120 km, reaching a height of over 40 m above sea level at its southern tip.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Middle East Geological & Environmental Establishment, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A. S. Alsharhan

  2. School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    C. G. St. C. Kendall

Authors
  1. A. S. Alsharhan
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  2. C. G. St. C. Kendall
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Correspondence to C. G. St. C. Kendall .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Sustainable Halophyte Utilization (ISHU), University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

    Bilquees Gul

  2. UNESCO Bangkok Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, Bangkok, Thailand

    Benno Böer

  3. Institute of Sustainable Halophyte Utilization (ISHU), University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

    M. Ajmal Khan

  4. UNESCO Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences, Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, Paris cedex 15, France

    Miguel Clüsener-Godt

  5. Institute of Sustainable Halophyte Utilization (ISHU), University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

    Abdul Hameed

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Alsharhan, A.S., Kendall, C.G.S.C. (2019). Interpretations of Holocene Carbonate-Evaporites of Coastal and Inland Sabkhas of Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) from Landsat Satellite Images and Field Survey. In: Gul, B., Böer, B., Khan, M., Clüsener-Godt, M., Hameed, A. (eds) Sabkha Ecosystems. Tasks for Vegetation Science, vol 49. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04417-6_11

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