Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.4,
No.3, pp. 319-327, 1982
©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press,
Ltd.
A POSSIBLY EXTENSIVE
CRUSTAL FAILURE SYSTEM OF ECONOMIC INTEREST
S. O. Al Khatieb* and I. W.
Norman**
*Dept. of Geology, Imperial
College of Science and Technology, London SW7 2BP.
**35 Brangwyn Avenue, Brighton BN1 8XH.
Abstract
Landsat studies of large areas in Nigeria
and Saudi Arabia have shown parallel alignments of
remarkably-straight lineaments about 40 km apart of hundreds of
kilometres in length, dispersed amongst many members of other
systems and randomly-oriented individuals. These apparent crustal
failure zones influence the sites of intrusives (including some
economically mineralized), extrusives and some important
oilfields. In both main areas studied, families of intrusives
aligned along the lineaments system show a minimum age of 520-540
m.y., but evidence of their existence can be detected on images
from Quaternary to Cambrian in Saudi Arabia. Although usually
there is little ground surface evidence of horizontal dislocation
of comparable dimensions, evidence exists of vertical movements
of sections bounded by these features.
