How old is the arabian plate

It moves northeastward as a result of the eruption of magmas along the Red Sea rift, which spreads annually at a rate of approximately 15 mm. This spreading center produces many earthquakes along its boundaries with the surrounding plates, such as those along its eastern and northeastern margins that form the Zagros Mountains in Iran or along its northern margins in Turkey, which was hit by a devastating earthquake on August 17, that claimed the lives of nearly 20, people, injured more than 40,, and displaced over a quarter of a million people, in addition to huge material losses, which was estimated to be in the billions of dollars.

Saudi Arabia is part of the so-called Arabian Plate. It is bordered by three types of tectonic boundaries: divergent, convergent, and transform fault boundaries. The Arabian Peninsula constitute as the largest part of this plate, hence, its name. During late Devonian, a Hercynian Orogeny structural event initiated the uplift of central Arabian and tilted the Arabian plate eastward, exposing Devonian and older Rock s to erosion and transforming the northeast Gondwana margin from a passive to an active margin McGillivray and Husseini, The Arabian Plate was also rotated through 90o in an anticlockwise direction.

This tectonic event resulted from the collision between Africa and the North American-North European continent. This event produced a significant hiatus pre-Unayzah unconformity " PUU or the Hercynian unconformity which produced significant uplift and erosion at the Ghawar region McGillivray and Husseini, The NS-trending compressive Hercynian orogeny resulted in the forming or rejuvenation of the Central Arabian Arch, which is overprinted by the basement, cored Ghawar anticline Konert et al.

The movement of these arches persisted into the Jurassic and later. During the Jurassic the Arabian plate was relatively tectonically stable and was located at the Equator enabling the development of a wide shallow shelf on the western passive margin of the Neo-Tethys on which carbonate s accumulated over the shelf and inner platform. Most of the Arabian Gulf petroleum source-reservoir-seals accumulated during the Jurassic and Cretaceous.

The climate became more humid towards the end of Early Jurassic. As a result, evaporite s deposition was rare. Intrashelf depressions such as the Gotnia, the South Rub' AlKhali, and the Arabian Basin s were created as a result of tectonic differentiation and rising sea level.

The major for mation of the Arabian platform was initiated in the Late Callovian, and caused the deposition of the organic rich Rock s that form the major source formation in the anoxic intrashelf basin s of the Middle East e. The carbonate deposition on the shelf kept pace with changes in sea level until the end of Jurassic when the major evaporitic seals were deposited during a fall in sea level as the climate became predominantly arid.

The onset of the Alpine-Himalayan orogeny started in the late Cretaceous. The Neo-Tethys began to close and as a result of compression and foredeep developed in eastern Arabia. The re-organization of the Indian Ocean spreading centers as a result of fast northward motion of Indian plate thrust fragments of ocean crust upon the eastern Arabian plate continental margins Semail ophiolite of Oman Hulver, This tectonic motion produced a major hiatus of sedimentation across the Arabian plate and the Pre-Aruma unconformity PAU.

Additionally, the "Hercynian" structures were rejuvenated and started forming the major eastern Arabian petroleum traps e. The Pakistani fishers have noticed a mud volcano in the Arabian Sea. According to NASA, the mud volcanoes are formed underwater when the layers of silt or clay become pressurized either by a build up of hydrocarbon gases or by a tectonic activity.

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