Arabia

History

The past. Green Arabia: the summer monsoon rains moved north over Arabia 10,676 to 9,276 years ago. Grass and scattered trees spread over parts of the desert, and lakes filled dune fields and desert basins, from the Emirates to Tayma and Jubbah in the north. The monsoon left northern Oman within a few decades 6,376 years ago, and by 5,376 years ago the plants had thinned and the dunes had moved again. Earlier, at the ice age peak, the sea stood about 120 metres lower and the whole Gulf was dry land; the sea flooded it between about 14,000 and 7,000 years ago. Only the desert beds change colour, all at once, and only inside those windows.

850 million years ago

Volcanic arcs formed and welded together over about 300 million years, building much of this plate's continental crust.

31 million years ago

A mantle plume erupted flood lavas, and rifts began to tear Arabia away from Africa.

27.5 million years ago

Arabia began to collide with Eurasia, raising the Zagros mountains.

19.6 million years ago

The Dead Sea Transform, a great sideways fault, began to form on this plate's western edge.

Sources: Fleitmann and Matter 2009, Comptes Rendus Geoscience 341:633; Fleitmann et al. 2022, Geophysical Research Letters 49:e2021GL097255; Preston et al. 2015, Quaternary International 382:277; Parker et al. 2006, Quaternary Research 66:465; Petraglia et al. 2020, PNAS 117:8263; Lokier et al. 2015, Quaternary Research 84:69 · Stern and Johnson 2010, Earth-Science Reviews 101:29 · Bosworth, Huchon and McClay 2005, Journal of African Earth Sciences 43:334 · McQuarrie and van Hinsbergen 2013, Geology 41:315 · Nuriel et al. 2017, Geology 45:587