This book is the result of the work of the first international congress of the ArabGU (Arabian Geosciences Union) which took place in Algiers (Algeria) in February 2016. It presents research articles and review papers on geology of the North Africa and Arabian Middle East . It provides information to the public on various fields of earth sciences and encourages further research in this field in order to attract an international audience.

The wealth of petroleum has made the Middle East one of the most actively explored regions of the world. The volume of geological, geophysical and geochemical data collected by the petroleum industry in recent decades is enormous. The Middle East may be a unique region in the world where the volume of subsurface data and information exceeds that based on surface outcrop.This book reviews the tectonic and geological history of the Middle East and the regional hydrocarbon potential on a country by country basis in the context of current ideas developed through seismic and sequence stratigraphy and incorporating the ideas of global sea level change.Subsurface data have been used as much as possible to amplify the descriptions.The paleogeographic approach provides a means to view the area as a whole. While the country by country approach inevitably leads to some repetition, it enhances the value of the volume as a teaching tool and underlines some of the changing lithologies within formations carrying the same name.

This richly illustrated book reviews the geology, tectonics and mineralization of the Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) in 27 chapters. It starts with an examination of the ANS lithospheric scale features, explores Mesoproterozoic units and deals with the ANS oceanic stage. Arc volcanism and plutonism, post-collision basins and volcanics are discussed, as well as the younger granitoid magmatism and the deformation history of the ANS. The book provides information on ANS glacial stages and late magmatism. Chapters are devoted to review the transition between ANS and the reworked continent to its south. Finally, it discusses how ANS structures influenced the overall East African Rift System.