Abstract:
A palaeokarst system of Turonian age, located on the Arabian platform, at the front of the ophiolitic nappes of Oman (Jabal Madar, Adam foothills), is described and placed in its geodynamic context. The development of the karst network in a vadose context was favoured by an episode of fracturing (N-S to NW-SE fractures) that affected the Cenomanian platform carbonates of the Natih Formation. The karstic filling comprises two main types of speleothems: - laminated bioclastic calcarenites with graded bedding essentially deposited by gravity currents in a vadose regime; - crystallisation of large masses of white calcite in a saturated regime. The calcite was deposited during several episodes, and often constitutes most of the filling. The episode of uplift and emergence, accompanied by fracturing which favoured the development of the Madar karstic system, was probably induced by the swelling of the Arabian platform, in response to the initiation of the ophiolitic nappe obduction. Karstic filling probably occurred during the rise of marine level, what is suggested by mixing of vadose and marine influences (production of bioclastic calcarenites and later dolomitisation of these ones; crystallisation of white calcite of various origins as evidenced by cathodoluminescence data and carbonate isotopes). At the beginning of the Senonian, the Jabal Madar area was again submerged and incorporated in a relatively deep foreland basin where pelagic marls and turbidites were deposited (Muti Formation). The Jabal Madar (and its karstic system) and the whole of the Adam foothills were affected by folding towards the end of the Cretaceous, during the final phase of thrusting of the Omani nappes. The folding was strongly reactivated by post-obduction compressional movement which occurred during Miocene times