Structural and tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Upper Cretaceous-Eocene sequence in Malaqet-Mundassah-El Saah Range, Oman Mountains, United Arab Emirates and Oman

The Malaqet-Mundassah area lies on the western flank of the Northern Oman Mountains in the UAE and Oman. This area is a well-exposed example of Alpine thrusted and folded Ophiolitic assemblage and post-obduction autochthonous sequences. The hinge zones of the thrust propagation folds accommodated stronger deformation compared with the weaker deformation that occurred in the other parts of these folds. In this area, there have been three main tectonic shortening events, two associated with the formation of unconformities (pre-Late Campanian and Cretaceous/Tertiary) and one during the deposition of megabreccia and conglomerates units (Early-Middle Eocene). Each event continued mildly during the deposition of sediments above. Tectonism was accompanied by sea level changes so that the Malaqet-Mundassah area experienced two marine regressions and two transgressions between the Late Cretaceous and the Oligocene times. Activity of northwest striking (NE-dipping) thrust faults and similarly trending thrust-propagation folds is responsible for the formation of a local basin, the Malaqet-El Saah basin in which the Simsima, Muthaymimah, Saah, and Tawi Uwayyir formations of the area were deposited. The syn-sedimentary activity of thrusts, folds and strike-slip faults is documented in thickness variations, stratigraphic onlapping of formations towards the fold hinges, and the presence of megabreccia and conglomerate deposits not found elsewhere in the foreland basin.