page_title: Persian Gulf Basin
section_title: Structural and tectonic settings
hierarchical_section_title: Persian Gulf Basin / Structural and tectonic settings
caption_attribution_description: English: Arabian Plate showing general tectonic and structural features, Infracambrian rift salt basins, and oil and gas fields of Central Arabia and North Gulf area (usgs.gov)
context_page_description: The Persian Gulf Basin, is found between the Eurasian and the Arabian Plate. The Persian Gulf is described as a shallow marginal sea of the Indian Ocean that is located between the south western side of Iran and the Arabian Peninsula and south and southeastern side of Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Other countries that border the Persian Gulf basin include; Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq. The Gulf extends a distance of 1000 km with an area of 240,000 square km. The Persian Gulf basin is a wedge-shaped foreland basin which lies beneath the western Zagros thrust and was created as a result of the collision between the Arabian and Eurasian plates.
context_section_description: The Arabian Plate shows divergent margins around the adjacent areas of the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea and the south western side of the Arabian plate. On the south and south eastern side of the Arabian plate lies the Owen-Sheba which is an intra-oceanic transform fault. Then there is convergent margin located on the north and north eastern side close to Turkey and in the Zagros Mountains located on the east of Iran, where the Arabian plate is subducting underneath the Eurasian plate. Lastly the Dead Sea, which is a transform fault zone found on the north western side of the Arabian plate.
  The current deformation and accumulation processes that are related to the natural structures and the subsequent compression of the layers within the Persian Gulf illustrates the origin of the various natural resources found in the place, the geologic processes and the tectonic regimes that occurred.
  The tectonic representation of the Middle East is divided into three parts that have different characteristics concerning their age, thickness and types of rocks :
  The Stable Arabian shelf.
  The Unstable Arabian shelf.
  The Zagros fold-and-thrust belt.
  The end of the Paleozoic experienced some transformations in terms of subsidence differentiations and sea level rise that led to the formation of structural elements such as the three troughs: 
  The Arabian Trough
  Which is located in the middle part of the basin which is largely covered by Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. 
  The Gotnia Trough
  Which is in the northern side of the basin covering Iraq and Syria.
  The Rub-Al-Khali
  Which is found in the Saudi Arabia and parts of United Arab Emirates.
  Most of the geological characteristics were established during the Paleozoic which were initiated by the continuous continental marine sedimentation on the north east side of Gondwana. Some complex events which were effects of the carboniferous processes also affected the area through creation of regional uplift, extensive erosions some basement tectonics. Therefore, the consistent tectonic geological evolution and the structural settings that resulted thereafter formed the Arabian plate after successive tectonic regimes.
caption: Arabian Plate showing general tectonic and structural features, Infracambrian rift salt basins, and oil and gas fields of Central Arabia and North Gulf area (usgs.gov)
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