Ali Gebran

Mesozoic and Cenozoic deformation inferred from seismic stratigraphy in the southwestern intracontinental Palmyride fold-thrust belt, Syria

This paper was published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin. The Geological Society of America retains the copyright to this paper. Geological Society of America, P.O. Box 9140 , Boulder, CO 80301-9140 USA See also: http://www.geosociety.org/; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/syria/chaimov_gsa_bull_1992.html

Continental Margin Evolution of the Northern Arabian Platform in Syria

Copyright AAPG 1993, reprinted by permission of the AAPG whose permission is required for further use. See also: http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/syria/best_1993.html

Seismic reflection structure of intracratonic palmyride fold-thrust belt and surrounding Arabian platform, Syria

Copyright 1990, AAPG. Reprinted by permission of the AAPG whose permission is required for further use. See also: http://aapgbull.geoscienceworld.org/; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/syria/mcbride_aapg_1990.html

Bouguer gravity trends and crustal structure of the Palmyride Mountain belt and surrounding northern Arabian platform in Syria

Copyright 1990, Geological Society of America. See also: http://dx.doi.org/10.1130%2F0091-7613%281990%29018%3C1235%3ABGTACS%3E2.3.CO%3B2 http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/syria/best_1990.html

Crustal structure of central Syria: The intracontinental Palmyride Mountain belt

An edited version of this paper was published in Tectonophysics by Elsevier Science. Copyright 1992, Elsevier Science. See also: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0040-1951(92)90395-M; http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/syria/Al-Saad-et-al_1992.html

Stratigraphy and structure of eastern Syria across the Euphrates depression

Abstract A N-S crustal-scale geotransect across the northern Arabian platform in eastern Syria reveals an alternating series of basement uplifts and basins separated by predominantly transpressional fault zones above an effectively uniform crust. Four major tectonic provinces are crossed along a 325 × 100 km corridor that extends from the Iraqi border in the south to the Turkish border in the north: the Rutbah uplift, the Euphrates depression, the Abd el Aziz structural zone, and the Qamichli uplift. These features are the manifestations of reactivated pre-Cenozoic structures that responded to forces acting along nearby Arabian plate boundaries, particularly Cenozoic convergence and collision along the margins of the northern Arabian platform i.e., the Bitlis suture and the East Anatolian fault in southern Turkey and the Zagros suture in Iran and Iraq. The database for this study consists of 3000 km of industry seismic reflection data, 28 exploratory wells, and geologic and Bouguer gravity maps. The deep crustal structure and, in part, the basement geometry along this transect are inferred from two-dimensional modeling of Bouguer gravity, whereas the shallow (about 8 km) structure is constrained primarily by well and seismic data. Features of the geotransect reveal: 1. (1) A relatively uniform crustal column approximately 37 km thick with only minor crustal thinning beneath the Euphrates. Crustal thinning may be slightly more pronounced beneath the Euphrates (about 35 km) to the southeast of the transect where the Bouguer gravity anomaly is slightly higher. 2. (2) Along the Euphrates depression, ongoing subsidence, which began during the Late Cretaceous, resulted in the deposition of at least 3 km of Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic rocks. The structural complexity of the Paleozoic and most of the Mesozoic sedimentary sections along the transect contrasts markedly with a relatively simple, flat-lying Cenozoic section along most of the transect. A notable exception is the Abd el Aziz uplift, where Cenozoic rocks are strongly deformed. 3. (3) While Euphrates subsidence continued throughout the Cenozoic, the inversion of the E-W-trending Abd el Aziz structure into a fault-bounded tilted block began in the Miocene, perhaps as a response to the last episode of intense Miocene collision along the nearby Bitlis and Zagros suture zones.

Northern Arabian Platform Transect Across the Palmyride Mountain Belt: Syrian Arab Republic

An edited version of this paper was published by the Inter-Union Commission on the Lithosphere and the American Geophysical Union, and copyright is retained by these publishers. See also: http://atlas.geo.cornell.edu/syria/Al-Saad-et-al_1991.html

Mesozoic And Cenozoic Deformation Inferred From Seismic Stratigraphy In the Southwestern Palmyride Fold Belt of Central Syria

The Palmyride fold belt in central Syria is a northeast-trending, 400 by 100 km transpressive belt embedded in the northern Arabian platform. During the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic the region of the present-day belt was a rift-like trough that collected over 5 km of sediments, for a total Phanerozoic thickness of over 10 km. Seismic stratigraphy is used on seismic reflection data from small intermontane basins in the southwestern Palmyride mountains, about 100 km NE of Damascus, Syria, to document three late Mesozoic and Cenozoic deformational episodes. Stratigraphic picks in two small basins are constrained by synthetic seismic traces that in the absence of nearby well data were generated solely from forward modeling of outcrop information. Minor tectonic uplift, Late Cretaceous or early Paleocene in age, caused local onlap within the interior of the Palmyride trough. Tectonic quiescence throughout most of the Paleogene was interrupted in the Middle Eocene by minor tectonism. Marked onlap and/or downlap of Lower Miocene elastics onto an Oligocene unconformity indicates accelerated tectonism during Late Oligocene to Early Miocene time Hence, the Palmyride trough appears to have been inverted in Late Cretaceous/early Paleogene time and, subsequently, developed into a transpressive zone throughout Neogene and Quatemary times. The Cretaceous/Paleogene d formational episode is an integral part of the Syrian Arc, which extends from central Syria southward to central Sinai and probably pre-dates the development of the Red SeafDead Sea system. In contrast, the Neogene through Quaternary episode is clearly related to the development of the Red Sea/Dead Sea fault system and to convergence in southern Turkey.