The sabkha sequence at Mussafah Channel (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates): Facies stacking patterns, microbial-mediated dolomite and evaporite overprint
Authors: Strohmenger Christian J. , Al-Mansoori Abdulla , Al-Jeelani Omar , Al-Shamry Ali , Al-Hosani Ismail , Al-Mehsin Khalil , Shebl Hesham 
Published: October 2021

The Mussafah Channel is a man-made canal cut perpendicular to the coastline, located to the southwest of the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and is ideal for studying coastal depositional processes in an arid environment. The channel walls reveal a few meters of Pleistocene reworked dune deposits, unconformably overlain by Holocene carbonates and sabkha evaporites. The Holocene succession consists of intertidal to shallow subtidal sediments that vary significantly along depositional strike direction. Bladed gypsum crystals, gypsum rosettes, and nodular to highly contorted, discontinuous bands of classic sabkha anhydrite are present along the channel walls. Sedimentology, petrography, SEM, X-ray diffraction, and radiocarbon age-dating analyses of the sabkha sequence show the following profile from base to top: (1) non-bedded carbonate-rich sand: reworked aeolianite with an approximate (ca.) radiocarbon age in years (yrs) before present (BP) ca. 26,800 14C yrs BP; (2) cross-bedded to non-bedded carbonate-rich sand: aeolianite/reworked aeolianite (ca. 24,000–23,500 14C yrs BP); (3) crinkly-laminated stromatolitic bindstone: intertidal, low-energy microbial mat (ca. 6,600–6,200 14C yrs BP); (4) lower, discontinuous and in places reworked hardground: cemented channel-lag deposits (ca. 6,400 14C yrs BP); (5) peloid-skeletal packstone with rootlets or microbial-laminated peloid-skeletal packstone, laterally grading into fine- to coarse-grained, cross-bedded, cerithid-rich, bioclastic packstone, grainstone, and rudstone: lowermost intertidal to shallow subtidal, low-energy, mud-rich rooted and microbial-laminated lagoonal deposits and moderate- to high-energy, intertidal to shallow subtidal tidal-channel, tidal-delta, and tidal-bar deposits (ca. 6,200–5,200 14C yrs BP); (6) upper discontinuous and shingled hardground: cemented beach rock (ca. 5,700 14C yrs BP); (7) cross-bedded, bioclastic rudstone/grainstone, grading laterally into intervals displaying bladed gypsum crystals and nodular to enterolithic anhydrite: intertidal to shallow subtidal, high-energy longshore beach bar and beach spit deposits; overprinted by sabkha gypsum and anhydrite (ca. 5,000 14C yrs BP).

Significant amounts of dolomite were found within the rooted and microbial-laminated mud-rich lagoonal carbonates, some of the tidal-channel/lagoonal deposits, the buried crinkly-laminated microbial mats, and within some of the Pleistocene carbonate-rich sands. The dolomite is very fine-crystalline and displays spherical morphologies as well as subhedral to euhedral dolomite rhombohedra. The formation of dolomite is interpreted to be related to dolomite-mediating microbial organisms which form the widespread microbial mat along the Abu Dhabi coastline. Microbial organisms are also present within the rooted and microbial-laminated lagoonal carbonates and, most probably, within all the other studied carbonates and the Pleistocene carbonate-rich sands. Biopolymers of microbial origin, referred to as Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS), are interpreted to play a key role in primary dolomite formation.

The sabkha sequence at Mussafah Channel formed during the post-glacial Flandrian transgression, resulting in the reworking of the Pleistocene aeolian dunes and the deposition of intertidal to shallow subtidal carbonates. Recent find of whale bones within tidal-channel deposits overlying the microbial mat further document the initial Holocene transgression. During a subsequent slight sea-level fall (regression), these carbonates were overprinted by gypsum and anhydrite.

The observed lateral and vertical facies variations reflect primary reservoir quality variations, an important aspect to be considered for geological facies and reservoir quality modeling.