Sedimentological and Geochemical Study of the UAE Sabkha
Dr. Stephen Lokier, Dr. Thomas Steuber

 

The Holocene to recent evaporite and carbonate sediments of the Abu Dhabi sabkha have been extensively applied as an analog for the formation of mixed carbonate-evaporite units throughout the world such as the regionally important Jurassic Arab Formation. However, it has been increasingly recognised that this interpretation may not be truly representative of the Arab Formation, and thus, may result in the construction of reservoir models that do not accurately predict subsurface geometries.
During this study the Abu Dhabi Sabkha is being re-examined using integrated sedimentological, isotope-geochemical and palaeontological techniques. The results of this analysis will be applied to build a chronostratigraphically constrained sabkha model that can be applied to a more accurate interpretation of the Arab Formation. Sequence stratigraphic models of the Arab Formation have typically employed lithostratigraphic rather than chronostratigraphic correlations. This has resulted from a lack of stratigraphic control due to a paucity of stratigraphically significant fossils and poor isotopic control resulting from the chemically complex sabkha environments. Specific focus is on:

• Facies distributions and heterogeneity at all scales.
• Budget of water and solutes.
• Early and post depositional diagenesis
• The role of primary depositional facies on diagenetic processes.