The Mountains
The Hajjar Mountians, Tuwaiq Mountains, and The Arabian Shield are sourounding the Empty quarter, and they are critical reasons of the creation of Empty Quarter.
The Hajjar Mountains are located in the East side of the Empty Quarter basin. These mountains are located in Oman and UAE. Understanding the causes that formed mountains that are surrounding the Empty Quarter provide us clearer explanation, because these mountains is the one of the reasons that formed the Empty Quarter.
Flash flood at part of Twauiq Mountains
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/resprog/worldwide/ilris_saudiarabia.htm
Book: Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Geology of the Middle East, By A.E.M. Nairn, A.S. Alsharhan
3- The Arabian Shield formation Article citation:
The Hajjar Mountains
UAE side of The Hajjar mountains
The Mountains Formation:
Subduction is the main cause of creating the
distinctive geology of the Hajar Mountains. From what we have read, because of
the subduction that occurred in the deep of the Tethys Ocean, which have
created an obduction on the shore that caused the creation of the Hajar
Mountains. What happened was the volcanic activity had pushed the curst causing
a subduction in the bottom of the ocean. Because of the subduction in the ocean,
a collision took place between a continental crust and an oceanic crust, and
this activity called obduction. On the shore, folding and faulting happened,
which created the mountains. The formation of the mountains is estimated to be
started approximately 90 million years ago and was completed by about 75million
years ago.
Tuwaiq Mountains
Jebel Tuwaiq
(Tuwaiq Mountain ) which is around 600 meters
high; is
one of the interesting geographic landmarks in the Arabian Peninsula. Jebel Tuwaiq is a Plateau of limestone that extends from south of the capital "Riyad" to the north of the empty quarter.
Road from Riyad to Mekkah, which goes throw Jebel Tuwaiq
The mountain was named tuwaiq because it
extends by 800km and looks like a “tuwq”, which means a collar, so its
shaped like “(“. The mountain is located on upper Jurassic part of KSA, and it has high reserves of oil. Bureau and Saudi Aramco used LIDAR survey to build a 3-D model of the mountain.
Formation of Twauiq Mountain:
The Arabian Shield
 |
| Location Of The Arabian Shield As Shown On the Map |
 |
| Najid Plateau |
The studies showed that in 1770 Ma the subduction process
between three micro-plates Zalm, the Kabid, and southern Afif terrain have
created what’s called the Arabian Shield. Arabian shield is formation of
several mountains and Najid Plateau. The Kabid micro-plate formation is the
oldest one of these terrains which goes back to Proterozoic. By 720 Ma Afif
Southern Micro-plate collided with Asir terrain as part of the Nabitah orogeny.
According to the studies, faulting was the process that caused formation of
Najid plateau. Najid Strike-Slip fault has changed the its motion direction.
1-The Hajar mountians Citations:
http://www.uaeinteract.com/uaeint_misc/teanh/005over.pdf
http://pollock-virag.com/UAE/2008_Sandy_Beach/Sandy_Beach_2008.htm
2-Twaiq Mountains Citations:
Book: Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Geology of the Middle East, By A.E.M. Nairn, A.S. Alsharhan
3- The Arabian Shield formation Article citation:
http://looklex.com/e.o/najd.htm
http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/content/142/6/1189.short
