This Sheet Description describes the Quaternary and solid geology of the Umm Azzimul 1:100 000 scale geological map. The Umm Azzimul district covers approximately 2700 km2 in the far southeast of the UAE along the border with Saudi Arabia and Oman. This district spans the transition from the extensive sand sea of the Ramlat ar Rabbad in the northwest to the distal alluvial fan sediments and Miocene limestone outcrops along the border with Oman around Al Manadir and Umm Azzimul, and includes the eastern extension of the Liwa megabarchan field.
The oldest rocks in the area are the Miocene Dam Formation limestones and dolomites that form flat or very gently sloping limestone pavements within the interdunes in the far southeast of the district. In the northeast, these are partially overlain by the fluvial sands and gravels of the Hili Formation. These fluvial gravels represent the very distal end of a large alluvial fan system that extends out from the Hajar Mountains. The lithological composition of these gravels reflects their source area in the Hamrat Duru region of Oman, rather than the ophiolite source seen further north. These alluvial fans peter out in a series of continental sabkhas underlain by both fluvial and aeolian sands.
The major part of the Umm Azzimul district consists of aeolian dunes of various morphologies. The dune morphology changes systematically in a south and south-easterly direction across the district, reflecting the migration of the dunes driven by the prevailing wind. In the northwest, the extensive Ramlat ar Rabbad sand sea is comprised of large barchan dunes that get progressively smaller to the south and east. Across the central part of the district, these morph into more discrete megabarchan dunes and dune ridges separated by flat interdune sabkhas. Much of the south-western part of the sheet is occupied by large crescentic megabarchan dunes up to 130 m high that extend west into the Liwa area, whilst in the east, the elongate linear dune ridges, punctuated by numerous star dunes and occasional megabarchans are more common. The star dunes become more frequent close to the Oman border. These dune ridges and star dunes can rise up to 100 m above the surrounding interdunes. Most of the district is sparely populated, with no major urban areas and few roads. The south of the region is also host to the relatively small Qusawira and Mender oilfields.
This Sheet Description describes the Quaternary and solid geology of the Abu Dhabi 1:100 000 scale geological map. The Abu Dhabi district covers 3620 km2 along the Arabian Gulf coast including the northern part of Saadiyat island, Abu Dhabi, part of the Mussafah district and many of the islands to the west. These include Futaisi, Bu Kesheishah, Halat al Bharaini, Al Dabiya, Bu Qumah, Bu Shara, Al Qanatir and Al Rafiq. The sheet also includes a significant part of the coastal plain southwest of Abu Dhabi between Shunayyin in the east to Borquat al Rashid in the west, and south to Maharqah, across which the main E11 coastal highway runs. In the southeast of the district, an area of higher ground is formed of Miocene rocks draped by a variable sequence of cemented and unconsolidated dune sand. The region hosts several major oilfields including the Rumaitha, Shanayel, Al Dabb’iya, Umm al Dalkh, Al Mutarib and Umm al Lulu fields.
The region is dominated by a series of offshore islands, part of a chain of barrier islands that extend from north of Abu Dhabi to Marawah Island, west of the present area. These islands, along with the sea-ward margin of the coastal plain are mostly comprised of a thin sequence of intensively studied Holocene marine carbonates termed the Abu Dhabi Formation. These sediments represent a transgressive-regressive sequence, and form the classic carbonate-evaporitic ‘sabkhas’ for which the region is justly famous. The Abu Dhabi Formation includes a range of marine and supratidal facies including coastal spits, bars and beach ridges, lagoonal muds, algal mats and ooidal tidal deltas deposited over the last 10 000 years. The southern limit of the Holocene transgression is marked by a beach ridge running parallel to the coast and clearly visible on satellite imagery.
The barrier islands commonly have a core of well-cemented Pleistocene carbonate dune sand (Ghayathi Formation) around which the carbonate spits, bars and ridges of the Abu Dhabi Formation were accreted. The islands have been largely deflated down to the local water-table leading to the development of extensive sabkhas. Consequently, the islands are generally flat but punctuated by small Ghayathi Formation mesas and zeugen, forming mushroom-shaped outcrops rising up to 6 m above sea-level, locally capped with marine limestones of the Late Pleistocene Fuwayrit Formation. Offshore to the north of the island, below low water, is the Great Pearl Bank, an area of reefs and coralgal sands named after the former pearling industry in the region.
South of the Holocene beach ridge, much of the onshore area is an extensive, very gently sloping coastal plain, dominated by a deflated planation surface developed on either unconsolidated quartzose aeolian sand or well cemented carbonate grainstones of the Ghayathi Formation. The deflation surface is commonly marked by secondary gypsum forming a sabkha. The Ghayathi Formation palaeodunes are locally well exposed, forming spectacular wind-sculpted mesas and zeugen both on the islands and within the lagoons, but also onshore draping the Miocene rocks in the southeast of the district.
Urban planners and developers in some parts of the United Kingdom can now access geodata in an easy-to-retrieve and understandable format.3D attributed geological models and associated GIS outputs developed by the British Geological Survey (BGS) provide a predictive tool for planning site investigations for some of the UK's largest regeneration projects in the Thames and Clyde River catchments.
Urban regeneration in the UK tackles deprivation stemming from industrial decline. These long-term projects (up to 25 years) are some of Europe’s largest. They implement land recycling, sustainable development and effective management of land and water resources. Those engaged in regeneration and large-scale construction (e.g. Olympic Games 2012 in London) need accessible and readily understood environmental geoscience information. The British Geological Survey (BGS) increasingly meets these needs with interactive, bespoke, 3D attributed geologic models, constructed with GSI3D and other software, and related GIS datasets. Close partnerships with decision-makers, including environmental regulators, help ensure effective data use. For example, in the Clyde Corridor, Scotland’s national regeneration priority, BGS works with Glasgow City Council, delivering 3D models of surficial deposits and bedrock in an urban area undermined for coal and ironstone, and masked by variably contaminated anthropogenic deposits. Comprehensive geochemical datasets are also produced. The models incorporate engineering data, and provide a platform for groundwater recharge and flow models, developed using ZOOM object-oriented software, which will be parameterized with data from a groundwater monitoring network under development. This will facilitate monitoring of groundwater quality and levels during regeneration, and aid assessment of: large-scale remediation of chromium waste; point-source groundwater recharge associated with sustainable urban drainage, a growing part of metropolitan drainage strategy; and the potential for and sustainability of ground source heat from extensive minewaters and aquifers beneath Glasgow.
The INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and in force from the 15th May 2007) establishes an infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community. By facilitating the availability and access of spatial (geographic) information, best use can be made of the data for the benefit of a wide variety of users in different sectors and disciplines. Planning and development in Scotland bring together such a broad mix of users of spatial data. Therefore, the INSPIRE Directive has a key role to play in promoting improvements to spatial data infrastructures on which the efficiency and effectiveness of the planning process and successful and sustainable development depend. As a result, the Scottish economy will benefit, especially within the construction sector (which accounted for 6.6% of GDP in 2004, with a £12 billion turnover (www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/12/19143801/0)), as will society as a whole.
Groundwater in upland floodplains has an important function in regulating river flows and controlling the coupling of hillslope runoff with rivers, with complex interaction between surface waters and groundwaters throughout floodplain width and depth. Heterogeneity is a key feature of upland floodplain hydrogeology and influences catchment water flows, but it is difficult to characterise and therefore is often simplified or overlooked. An upland floodplain and adjacent hillslope in the Eddleston catchment, southern Scotland (UK), has been studied through detailed three-dimensional geological characterisation, the monitoring of ten carefully sited piezometers, and analysis of locally collected rainfall and river data. Lateral aquifer heterogeneity produces different patterns of groundwater level fluctuation across the floodplain. Much of the aquifer is strongly hydraulically connected to the river, with rapid groundwater level rise and recession over hours. Near the floodplain edge, however, the aquifer is more strongly coupled with subsurface hillslope inflows, facilitated by highly permeable solifluction deposits in the hillslope–floodplain transition zone. Here, groundwater level rise is slower but high heads can be maintained for weeks, sometimes with artesian conditions, with important implications for drainage and infrastructure development. Vertical heterogeneity in floodplain aquifer properties, to depths of at least 12 m, can create local aquifer compartmentalisation with upward hydraulic gradients, influencing groundwater mixing and hydrogeochemical evolution. Understanding the geological processes controlling aquifer heterogeneity, which are common to formerly glaciated valleys across northern latitudes, provides key insights into the hydrogeology and wider hydrological behaviour of upland floodplains.
This report describes the Clyde Gateway Pilot 3D geological model (superficial deposits, bedrock) and groundwater model (recharge and groundwater flow) which covers 1:10,000 scale Ordnance Survey sheets NS66SW, NS66NW and NS56SE. The groundwater model considers a broader area in general, and also, for practical purposes, a detailed consideration of NS56NE, based on available hydrogeological data. Therefore, the models, and report, address not only the Clyde Gateway area itself, but a larger area which includes for example the alignments of the M74 Extension and East End Regeneration Route.
The report provides background information to the model user including brief geological descriptions, model construction methods, uncertainty factors, limitations and a helpful 3D model user manual.
The British Geological Survey’s 3D geological framework modelling of the entire Glasgow conurbation and
surrounding River Clyde catchment, has been undertaken as part of the Clyde-Urban Super-Project (CUSP) and
in partnership with Glasgow City Council and other local and regulatory authorities. The 3D modelling covers
an area of complex glacial superficial deposits, overlain by heterogeneous anthropogenic deposits that reflect
Glasgow’s industrial heritage, over coal-bearing Palaeozoic bedrock succession deformed by multiple faulting
episodes. As such, the geology poses significant interpretive challenges for planners, regulators and engineers.
The depth dimension of conventional geological maps is very hard for non-geologists to appreciate. As a
result, decision makers rarely take full account of geoscience issues in planning and development; nor do they
fully exploit potential subsurface assets. With the advances of 3D hardware and software, it is now possible to
combine disparate geoscience data types for a wide range applications and scenarios and to display these data
effectively, and in ways that non-geologists can easily understand and use to inform their decisions.
Using several 3D modelling packages, but primarily GSI3D and GOCAD® workflows in tandem, we have
created 3D models designed to ‘nest’ within each other. Lower resolution regional models (c.1:50,000-scale
equivalent) therefore provide the context for higher resolution (1:10,000-scale equivalent), and ultimately
site-specific, models.
The geological framework models have been attributed with a wide range of parameters such as permeability,
aquifer productivity and various engineering properties. They have also been exported to flow modelling packages
to model time-series processes such as recharge and flow of groundwater and will be used to model migration
of contaminant plumes and carbon dioxide. Man-made objects, such as tunnels and mine workings have been
embedded as 3D objects and placed into the 3D geological framework so their relationships to faults and other
geological structures can be examined.
The models are already assisting in the design and layout of new subsurface infrastructure such as buried
utilities, tunnels, and underground storage, as part of Glasgow’s regeneration and redevelopment. They will also
help to accurately quantify resources and enable their sustainable exploitation (e.g. aggregates, coal). In particular,
the models provide an excellent basis for assessing the sustainable extraction of heat, using ground source heat
pumps, from mine waters in Glasgow’s extensive network of abandoned mines.
3D modelling is therefore placing geoscience data and knowledge at the heart of the decision making process.
With these data in forms that are interoperable with existing 3D models of surface infrastructure, the vision of
an integrated 3 dimensional surfaces and subsurface approach to future city-scale planning is becoming achievable.
This Sheet Description describes the Quaternary and solid geology of the Bu Hasa 1:100 000 scale geological map. The Bu Hasa district covers an area of 2780 km2, approximately 130 km southeast of Abu Dhabi. This district spans the transition from the exposed, deflated Miocene outcrops near the coast to the extensive aeolian sands of the Rub Al Khali desert. This district is particularly important for its exposures of the Miocene bedrock along its northern margin, particularly the carbonates of the Hamra Member with their Probosidean trackways. It is economically important in hosting the giant Bu Hasa and Bida Al Qemzan oil fields.
The oldest rocks in the area are the Miocene rocks of the Baynunah Formation, which form a gently sloping escarpment running east-west along the northern margin of the district. The formation comprises three members which are all well developed in the area. The lower, fluvial, Barakah Member, with its characteristic basal bone bed occurs in low-lying ground between a series of northwest to southeast trending ridges and headlands. The overlying Hamra Member caps these ridges, and comprises a sequence of interbedded calcareous siltstones, siltstones and fine sandstones, laid down in a low-energy fluvio-lacustrine system. These outcrop in an arc across the northern part of the sheet, capping the Miocene escarpment and locally forming extensive bedrock pavements. The Sahil Member, the highest part of the Baynunah Formation, is locally present, cropping out beneath the overlying Quaternary sediments.
Much of the central and southern part of the district consists of Quaternary sediments. Away from the Miocene escarpment, the modern dunes are underlain by the weakly cemented aeolian and playa sediments of the Madinat Zayed Formation which forms locally extensive northwest to southeast trending mesa outcrops between more recent dunes. These outcrops are largely, but not exclusively, restricted to the northern half of the Bu Hasa district. The Madinat Zayed is overlain by, and sometimes locally interdigitated with, the Ghayathi Formation. The latter is made up of moderately cemented, carbonate-dominated palaeo-dune sandstones that crop out along a narrow zone in the north of the district, resting on either Miocene bedrock or the Madinat Zayed Formation.
The major part of the Bu Hasa district consists of aeolian dunes with various morphologies. These include large areas of sand sheet, sometimes with rib or hook shaped linear dunes, low dunes and northwest to southeast trending dune ridges. In the far south of the district, more extensive areas of larger barchan dunes occur, which extend south onto Sheet 100-27 (Arada).
Areas of unconsolidated aeolian sand and sand veneer are found across the district, whilst small areas of sabkha are restricted to low lying areas in the north of the district.
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