The Geology and Tectonics of Oman and of Parts of South-Eastern Arabia

Abstract

The raison d'être of the great mountain-range of Oman, projecting like a buttress across the entrance to the Persian Gulf, is an alluring problem for geologists and geographers alike. This rugged mountain-belt with heights rising almost to 10,000 feet is strangely out of keeping with the general nature of Arabian topography, and in consequence it has generally been regarded as the unsubmerged part of an outer loop of the Zagros System which rejoins the mainland structures at Karachi (Argand p. 205; Suess 94, vol. iii, p. 750, Krenkel 61, p. 35, etc.). The only dissenter from this view is Kober(55), who assumes a branching of the Zagros System between Bandar Abbas and Karachi, the Oman and the Kirthar ranges forming the opposing flanks of this two-sided orogen, which here strikes due south and eventually circumscribes the whole African continent. I reproduce a figure (fig. 1) by Krenkel in which he shows his solution (full line) contrasted with that of Kober (broken line). I shall show in due course Fig. 1.—Tectonic map showing the relation of Oman to the Indus Ranges. that both these explanations contain an element of truth, and that the true solution is more complex than either.