ABU DHABI - The Geology.The Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (ä`b  thä`bē, zä–, dä–), Arab. Abu Zabi, sheikhdom (1995 pop. 928,360), c. emirate e·mir·ate n. 1. The office of an emir. 2. The nation or territory ruled by an emir. Noun 1. emirate - the domain controlled by an emir has an onshore area of 77,700 square kilometres, compared with a total land area of about 84,000 sq km for the whole of the UAE (Uninterruptible Application Error) The name given to a crash in Windows 3.0. In subsequent versions of Windows, a crash was called a "General Protection Fault," "Application Error" or "Illegal Operation." See crash in Windows and abend. , plus some 30,000 sq km of offshore area on the Arabian side of the Gulf. The emirate is located on a broadly subsiding shelf wherein sedimentation is very thick. Excellent reservoir rocks developed over wide areas with remarkable lateral continuity. The shales, anhydrites and tight limestones were equally widespread to provide extremely efficient sealing mechanisms. Major oil and gas reserves have been discovered in the emirate since the 1950s, essentially in the Cretaceous, Jurassic and Permian reservoirs. Abu Dhabi lies in a broad synclinal syn·cli·nal adj. 1. Sloping downward from opposite directions to meet in a common point or line. 2. Geology Relating to, formed by, or forming a syncline. Adj. 1. area between the basement shield of the Arabian Peninsula Arabian Peninsula or Arabia Peninsular region, southwest Asia. With its offshore islands, it covers about 1 million sq mi (2.6 million sq km). Constituent countries are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and, the largest, Saudi Arabia. and the upthrust mountains of Oman's Musandam Peninsula Musandam Peninsula Northeastern extension of the Arabian Peninsula. It partially separates the Gulf of Oman from the Persian Gulf to form the Strait of Hormuz to the north. Part of Oman, it is divided from the rest of the country by the United Arab Emirates. . To the north, on the far side of the Persian Gulf, the sedimentary basin is controlled by the Zagros mountain front. Major warps on a north-south axis can be distinguished under the Ghawar trend in Saudi Arabia and beneath the Qatar Arch. Within the territorial limits of Abu Dhabi there are few exposures of rocks older than the Plio-Pleistocene and Recent cover. Deep wells drilled have penetrated the pre-Khuff clastics of Permian and pre-Permian age. Lower Paleozoic salt, possibly Cambrian in age, is believed to underlie much of Abu Dhabi, especially in the offshore. Salt structures similar to those exposed to the north in Iran are believed to have been responsible for much of the structuration The theory of structuration, proposed by Anthony Giddens (1984) in The Constitution of Society, (mentioned also in Central Problems of Social Theory, 1979) is an attempt to reconcile theoretical dichotomies of social systems such as agency/structure, within the basin, uplifting younger rocks to form the traps for hydrocarbons. The licenced areas for onshore exploration over the past 17 years have reached about 65,000 sq km. Offshore acreages with rich sedimentation have reached about 30,000 sq km. Equally important to note is that water depths in offshore Abu Dhabi seldom exceed 40 metres. The thickness of the sedimentary pile is more than 30,000 feet. Of this 25,000 feet is post-salt. A deep well at Zakum reached 17,370 feet and was still above the salt pillow which forms this large, low-amplitude feature whose surface area is 660 sq km. Elsewhere in offshore Abu Dhabi and along the coast, the salt has punched up through the more recent sediments to breach the surface. |
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