For the geologist, amateur no less than professional, Oman holds endless fascination. Its territory presents extraordinary contrasts: the dramatic arid massifs of the northern jabal and the rolling upland pastures of Dhofar, the sand sea of Ar Rub al Khali, the vast salt pan of the Umm al Harasis, the wild beauty of its promontories and rockscapes. And mark the detail of it all - not merely the visual impact of the rock landscape but the information locked within or between the rocks - the fossils of marine life high in the mountains, or the oil deep underground, or the brilliantly elaborate crystal forms of its geodes, each of them carrying evidence of the drama of Oman's geological forming æons ago. This second edition of Oman's Geological Heritage, with its wealth of pictures and diagrams, places this absorbing and important field of knowledge within the reach of every reader.

This book describes in detail numerous geological sites throughout the mountains of Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Eastern Arabia. The region is well known for its oil and gas reserves in the desert interior, and Permian-Mesozoic shelf carbonates exposed in the mountains of the Musandam peninsula, Jebel al-Akhdar and Saih Hatat, where deep wadi canyons provide impressive three-dimensional views into the crust. The region has numerous globally important geological sites, including the world’s largest and best-exposed ophiolite complex, the Semail Ophiolite, which is a vast thrust sheet of Cretaceous ocean crust and upper mantle emplaced onto the Arabian continental margin. Other sites include spectacular fossil localities, subduction zone metamorphic rocks (eclogites, blueschists, amphibolites), fold-thrust belts, giant sheath folds and Precambrian salt domes, as well as the huge sand dunes of the Rub al’Khali, the Empty Quarter, and the separate Wahiba (Sharkiyah) sandsea of Eastern Oman. Written by Mike Searle, who has worked on geological research projects throughout Oman and UAE almost every year since 1978, this book describes the field geology of each site and includes a wealth of maps, field photos and diagrams illustrating key features. It also discusses the history of exploration of Arabia and the search for its hidden geological secrets. The book provides the geological basis for the establishment of a series of World Heritage Sites, National GeoParks and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) throughout the region. As such, it is of interest to geologists, tourists, mountaineers, trekkers, rock climbers and naturalists.

The Oman Mountains contain one of the world’s best- exposed and best-understood fold–thrust belts and the largest, best-exposed and most intensively studied ophiolite complex on Earth. This volume presents new international research from authors currently active in the field focusing on the geology of the Oman Mountains, the foreland region, the carbonate platforms of Northern and Central Oman and the underlying basement complex. In addition there is a particular focus on geoconservation in the region. The volume is divided into three main sections that discuss the tectonics of the Arabian plate using insights from geophysics, petrology, structural geology, geochronology and palaeontology; the petrology and geochemistry of the Oman Ophiolite and the sedimentary and hydrocarbon systems of Oman, drawing on the geophysics, structure and sedimentology of these systems. The volume is enhanced by numerous colour images provided courtesy of Petroleum Development Oman.

This volume describes the geography and environments of Oman, its rich copper ore deposits and the ancient mining and smelting techniques, and it also includes an overview of the physical properties of the different metals exploited in antiquity and of the analytical techniques used in archaeometallurgy.

Numerous metallic artefacts, deposited in a hoard in ancient times, came to light by chance on the campus of the Sultan Qaboos University in Al Khawd, Sultanate of Oman. Mostly fashioned from copper, these objects compare well with numerous documented artefact classes from south-eastern Arabia assigned to the Early Iron Age (1200–300 BCE).