Development and lithogenesis of the palustrine and calcrete deposits of the Dibdibba Alluvial Fan, Kuwait

AlShuaibi, Arafat A.; Khalaf, Fikry I.

doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2011.05.014

Cited by 23 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…2), one of which preserved a stratified archaeological assemblage. Similar inverted relief features armoured by calcrete crusts have been observed in other arid regions, such as Egypt (Aref, 2003) and Kuwait (Al Shuaibi and Khalaf, 2011).…”

Section: Site Location and Descriptionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Epipalaeolithic occupation and palaeoenvironments of the southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene

Hilbert¹,

White²,

Parton³

et al. 2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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International audienceThe transition from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Early Holocene is poorly represented in the geological and archaeological records of northern Arabia, and the climatic conditions that prevailed in the region during that period are unclear. Here, we present a new record from the site of Al-Rabyah, in the Jubbah basin (southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia), where a sequence of fossiliferous lacustrine and palustrine deposits containing an archaeological assemblage is preserved. Sedimentological and palaeoenvironmental investigations, both at Al-Rabyah and elsewhere in the Jubbah area, indicate phases of humid conditions, during which shallow lakes developed in the basin, separated by drier periods. At Al-Rabyah, the end of a Terminal Pleistocene phase of lake expansion has been dated to ∼12.2 ka using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), with a mid-Holocene humid phase dated to after ∼6.6 ka. Palaeoecological reconstructions based primarily on non-marine molluscs and ostracods from the younger lacustrine deposits indicate a relatively shallow body of freshwater surrounded by moist, well-vegetated environments. A lithic assemblage characterized by bladelets and geometric microliths was excavated from sediments attributed to a drier climatic phase dated to ∼10.1 ka. The lithic artefact types exhibit similarities to Epipalaeolithic industries of the Levant, and their occurrence well beyond the ‘core region’ of such assemblages (and at a significantly later date) has important implications for understanding interactions between Levantine and Arabian populations during the Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene. We suggest that the presence of foraging populations in the southern Nefud during periods of drier climate is due to the prolonged presence of a freshwater oasis in the Jubbah Basin during the Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene, which enabled them to subsist in the region when neighbouring areas of northern Arabia and the Levant were increasingly hostile

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Section: Site Location and Descriptionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Epipalaeolithic occupation and palaeoenvironments of the southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene

Hilbert¹,

White²,

Parton³

et al. 2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…Numerous inverted relief features across the basin may support this notion; these features have been reported from similar desert settings and also attributed to the presence smaller ponded water bodies (e.g. Aref, 2003;Al Shuaibi et al, 2011). The position of Middle Paleolithic sites in the basin at Mundafan may be explained by a mixture of this topographic/sedimentary complexity and by the sites dating to the time of the contraction of the lake from its maximum extent.…”

Section: Local and Regional Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 52%

Human occupation of the Arabian Empty Quarter during MIS 5: evidence from Mundafan Al-Buhayrah, Saudi Arabia

Groucutt

White

Clark-Balzan

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

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International audienceThe Empty Quarter (or Rub' al Khali) of the Arabian Peninsula is the largest continuous sandy desert in the world. It has been known for several decades that Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits, representing phases of wetter climate, are preserved there. These sequences have yielded palaeontological evidence in the form of a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate fossils and have been dated using various radiometric techniques. However, evidence for human presence during these wetter phases has until now been ephemeral. Here, we report on the first stratified and dated archaeology from the Empty Quarter, recovered from the site of Mundafan Al-Buhayrah (MDF-61). Human occupation at the site, represented by stone tools, has been dated to the later part of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 using multiple luminescence dating techniques (multigrain and single grain OSL, TT-OSL). The sequence consists primarily of lacustrine and palustrine sediments, from which evidence for changing local environmental conditions has been obtained through analysis of fossil assemblages (phytoliths and non-marine molluscs and ostracods). The discovery of securely-dated archaeological material at ∼100 to 80 ka in the Empty Quarter has important implications for hypotheses concerning the timing and routes of dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa, which have been much debated. Consequently, the data presented here fill a crucial gap in palaeoenvironmental and archaeological understanding of the southern Arabian interior. Fossils of H. sapiens in the Levant, also dated to MIS 5, together with Middle Palaeolithic archaeological sites in Arabia and India are thought to represent the earliest dispersal of our species out of Africa. We suggest that the widespread occurrence of similar lithic technologies across southern Asia, coupled with a growing body of evidence for environmental amelioration across the Saharo-Arabian belt, indicates that occupation of the Levant by H. sapiens during MIS 5 may not have been a brief, localized ‘failed dispersal’, but part of a wider demographic expansion

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“…Dibdibba Formation deposition took place in an alluvial fan setting (AlShuaibi & Khalaf, 2011;Milton, 1967). The subsurface Dibdibba Formation in Kuwait can be divided into two members; the lower member is of Mio-Pliocene age and consists of coarse-grained, poorly sorted gritty, and pebbly sandstone lithified by chalk and carbonate cement.…”

Section: Dibdibba Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsurface Stratigraphy of Kuwait

Al-Helal

AlRefai

AlKandari

et al. 2022

Regional Geology Reviews

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This chapter reviews the subsurface stratigraphy of Kuwait targeting geosciences educators. The lithostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy of the reviewed formations (association of rocks whose components are paragenetically related to each other, both vertically and laterally) followed the formal stratigraphic nomenclature in Kuwait. The exposed stratigraphic formations of the Miocene–Pleistocene epochs represented by the Dibdibba, Lower Fars, and Ghar clastic sediments (Kuwait Group) were reviewed in the previous chapter as part of near-surface geology. In this chapter, the description of these formations is based mainly on their subsurface presence. The description of the subsurface stratigraphic formations in Kuwait followed published academic papers and technical reports related to Kuwait’s geology or analog (GCC countries, Iraq and Iran) either from the oil and gas industry or from different research institutions in Kuwait and abroad. It is also true that studies related to groundwater aquifer systems also contribute to our understanding of the subsurface stratigraphy of Kuwait for the shallower formations. The majority of the published data were covered the onshore section of Kuwait. The subsurface stratigraphic nomenclature description is based on thickness, depositional environment, sequence stratigraphy, the nature of the sequence boundaries, biostratigraphy, and age. The sedimentary strata reflect the depositional environment in which the rocks were formed. Understanding the characteristics of the sedimentary rocks will help understand many geologic events in the past, such as sea-level fluctuation, global climatic changes, tectonic processes, geochemical cycles, and more, depending on the research question. The succession of changing lithological sequences is controlled by three main factors; sea-level change (eustatic sea level), sediment supply, and accommodation space controlled by regional and local tectonics influences. Several authors have developed theoretical methods, established conceptual models, and produced several paleofacies maps to interpret Kuwait’s stratigraphic sequence based on the data collected over time intervals from the Late Permian to Quaternary to reconstruct the depositional history of the Arabian Plate in general and of Kuwait to understand the characteristics of oil and gas reservoirs.

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Development and lithogenesis of the palustrine and calcrete deposits of the Dibdibba Alluvial Fan, Kuwait

Cited by 23 publications

References 72 publications

Epipalaeolithic occupation and palaeoenvironments of the southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene

Epipalaeolithic occupation and palaeoenvironments of the southern Nefud desert, Saudi Arabia, during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene

Human occupation of the Arabian Empty Quarter during MIS 5: evidence from Mundafan Al-Buhayrah, Saudi Arabia

Subsurface Stratigraphy of Kuwait

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