A tectono-stratigraphic framework for Yemen and its implications for hydrocarbon potential

Abstract

The Late Jurassic Marib Al Jawf Basin is part of a rift system extending southeastwards into the less well k n o w n Wadi Hajar Basin. This rift system may be one arm of a Late Jurassic failed triple rift which also included the Masilah Basin to the east, and the Sir Basin to the north. Late Jurassic rifting is shown to be diachronous, younging eastwards. Renewed rifting during the Early to Mid Cretaceous was accompanied by deposition of the newly recognized Furt Formation. This second rift phase initiated movement on the N -S striking 47°E Fault, w h i c h probably extends southwards into Somalia. Extension in the J e z aHowarime Rift System may also have c o m m e n c e d at this time. Oman Mountain orogenesis led to r e n e w e d subsidence in the east, and was followed by polyphase Tertiary rifting, inversion and localized gravity-driven extension on the continental margins. As a result of these events, a number of distinct petroleum systems developed.

The rift to break-up evolution of the Gulf of Aden: Insights from 3D numerical lithospheric-scale modelling

“…Nevertheless, this enechelon deformation occurs at larger scale (ca. 100 km) than in the numerical model (40-50 km) and is partly controlled by the Mesozoic inheritance (Ellis et al, 1996;Granath, 2001;Leroy et al, 2012;Autin et al, this volume). The wavelength difference is certainly due to the initial pattern of the inherited, widely spaced Mesozoic basins, which have focused the deformation during their reactivation, preventing the appearance of a more distributed pattern as in the numerical model.…”

Paleostress analysis of the volcanic margins of Yemen

“…2): the NW-trending Marib-Shabwa basins (Brannan et al 1999) and the WNW-trending Sayun-Al Masila and Jiza-Qamar basins further east (Redfern and Jones 1995;Beydoun et al 1996;Bosence 1997). These basins have been affected by three successive phases of rifting: during the Late Jurassic, associated with the fragmentation of Gondwana, and then during Early to mid-Cretaceous, corresponding to the separation of India from Madagascar and finally during Cenozoic (Ellis et al 1996;Brannan et al 1999;Schüppel and Wienholz 1990;Watchorn et al 1998;Ziegler 2001). Cenozoic NW-trending normal faulting affects both the sedimentary cover and the Tertiary volcanics.…”

Sedimentary basins of Yemen: their tectonic development and lithostratigraphic cover

“…Gravity and magnetic surveys conducted by Technoexport (a former Soviet Company) and published by Isaev et al (1984) and Isaev (1987) provided a subsurface framework for divisions of the Mesozoic basins of Yemen. Further attempts to systematize the knowledge of the Mesozoic basins were made by Jungwirth and As-Saruri (1990) using outcrop geologic mapping, and by Redfern and Jones (1995) and Ellis et al (1996), who elucidated the structural highs and basins based on the 1994 surveys by the Simon Petroleum Technology. Paul (1990) produced a schematic map of structural divisions of the former South Yemen, using unpublished geophysical data.…”