Evolution of Tethys Ocean

1. GEOL 501 - Geology of the Middle East
Instructor: Dr. Khalid Al-Ramadan
Term Paper
Evolution of Tethys Ocean
Omar Atef Radwan
g201306050
ESD

2. • Introduction
• Paleogeography
• Paleotectonics
• Paleoceanography
• Tethys Ocean and petroleum systems in the Middle East
• References
OUTLINE
2

3. INTRODUCTION
3
Erickson, 2002
• Eduard Suess in 1893
• named after the ancient Greek
goddess of the sea
• an ancient ocean that existed from
250–50 Mya
• orientated east–west
• separated the large continents of
Gondwana and Laurasia.

4. • Proto-Tethys (Precambrian-Carboniferous)
• Paleo-Tethys (Ordovician-Jurassic)
• Neo-Tethys (Permian-Paleocene)
• Para-Tethys (Jurassic -Pliocene )
4
PALEOGEOGRAPHY

5. 5
PALEOGEOGRAPHY
Berra and Angiolini , 2014
Proto-Tethys
• Ediacaran to the Carboniferous
(550–330 Ma)
• formed when Pannotia was
broken up into four principal
Paleozoic continents: Gondwana,
Laurentia, Baltica, and Siberia

6. 6
PALEOGEOGRAPHY
Berra and Angiolini , 2014
• situated between the Siberia to
and Gondwana
• Late Silurian: started to shrink
• Late Devonian, the
microcontinent of Kazakhstania
collided with Siberia, shrinking
the ocean even more.
• Carboniferous: The ocean
closed when the North China
craton collided with Siberia-
Kazakstania continent, while the
Paleo-Tethys Ocean expanded.

7. PALEOGEOGRAPHY
7
Muttoni et al., 2009
Paleo-Tethys
• Ordovician-Jurassic
• existed when Laurasia
and Gondwana-Land
collided in the late
Palaeozoic

8. PALEOGEOGRAPHY
8
Muttoni et al., 2009
Paleo-Tethys
• major dextral motion of
Laurasia relative to
Gondwana
• transformation of Pangea
from an Early Permian
configuration of the B-type
to a Late Permian
configuration of the A-type

9. PALEOGEOGRAPHY
9
Muttoni et al., 2009
• The Cimmerian
Continent rifted off from
the northern margin of
Gondwana-Land mostly
during the Permo-
Triassic opening behind
it the Neo-Tethys
• Palaeo-Tethys + the
Cimmerian Continent +
the Neo-Tethys + their
continental margins =
“Tethyan Realm”

10. Neo-Tethys
• Permian-Paleocene
• Tethys Ocean continued to
expand westward, dividing
Pangaea into the two large
continents of Laurasia in
the north and Gondwana
in the south, creating an
oceanic extension of the
Tethys, which today forms
the central Atlantic Ocean
10
Berra and Angiolini , 2014
PALEOGEOGRAPHY

11. • After the early Cretaceous, the Neo-
Tethys became the sole occupier of
the Tethyan Realm
• Tethys ocean reaches its maximum
extent.
11
Berra and Angiolini , 2014
PALEOGEOGRAPHY

12. • In the Upper Cretaceous (84 Ma),
the Indian plate began its very
rapid northward drift at an
average speed of 16 cm/year
• collision of the northwestern
part of the Indian passive margin
with Eurasia in the lower Eocene
• Indian continent continues its
northwards ascent at a slower
but still surprisingly fast rate of ~
5 cm/year
12
Berra and Angiolini , 2014
PALEOGEOGRAPHY

13. • The collision of the Arabian plate
with Eurasia, the closure and the
suturing of the Neotethyan Ocean,
lasted between late Middle
Miocene in the east and Late
Pliocene-Quaternary in the west.
• The rate of motion of Arabia with
respect to Eurasia has been fairly
constant between 2 and 3 cm/yr
since 56 Ma.
13
Berra and Angiolini , 2014
PALEOGEOGRAPHY

14. 14Sharland, 2001 Frisch et al., 2010
PALEOGEOGRAPHY

15. Para-Tethys
• Remnants of the Tethys Ocean include the Mediterranean, Caspian, Aral,
and Black Seas (formerly an inland extension of Tethys known as the
Paratethys).
15
Erickson, 2002
PALEOGEOGRAPHY

16. PALEOTECTONICS
16
• Hercynian Orogeny
• Cimmerian Orogeny
• Alpine Orogeny

17. PALEOTECTONICS
17
Dèzes, 1999

18. • The Alpine-Himalayan chain
includes (from west to
east):
Pyrenees, European Alps,
Apennines, Dinarides,
Carpathians, Anatolian
Plateau, Caucasus, Alborz,
Zagros, Kopeh Dagh,
Makran, Hindu Kush,
Karakorum, Tien Shan,
Tibet, and the Himalayas
stretches from Spain to
Indonesia is the result of a
step wise closure Neo-
Tethys sea way.
18Frisch et al., 2010
PALEOTECTONICS

19. PALEOTECTONICS
19Frisch et al., 2010
• Zagros fold–thrust belt
• Semail Nappe
• Makran Trench

20. 20
Stow, 2010
PALEOCEANOGRAPHY
Paleocurrent models for a general Pangea configuration is a westward-flowing
equatorial surface current which, upon reaching the continental shelves of the
western Tethys Seaway, deflected southeastward and northeastward; in the
meanwhile, a deep water circulation brought cold waters from high latitudes
to the equator. Ocean upwellings of these cold and nutrient-rich bottom
waters were created by monsoonal wind circulation along the Gondwanan
margin

21. PALEOBIOGEOGRAPHY
21
Stow, 2010
Paleoclimatology
• Oxygen-isotope analyses of
marine limestones have
shown that 125-85 Ma was
a time of severe global
warming due to a rapid
increase in atmospheric
carbon dioxide
concentrations
Eustasy
• This is consistent with
sequence stratigraphic
evidence for sea-level
maxima in mid-late
Cretaceous times.

22. PETROLEUM SYSTEMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
• For petroleum to be successfully generated, migrated, accumulated, and
preserved, all elements and processes of the petroleum system should be
present, including:
– organically rich and thermally matured source rocks
– porous-permeable reservoir rocks
– effective extensive cap rocks
– appropriate time relations between oil migration and trap formation
Obviously, the Middle East qualifies all these conditions to a high degree
and quality.
• The paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the southern Tethys area
during the Phanerozoic plays an important role in determining the
distribution of the source rocks and reservoirs as well as the origin of
stratigraphic and tectonic traps
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23. 23
TETHYS OCEAN – OIL GENERATION
Sorkhabi, 2010

24. • most of the giant oil and gas fields known until 2000 are related to:
– continental passive margins facing the major ocean basins (34.66%)
– continental rifts and overlying sag basins (especially failed rifts at the edges or
interiors of continents; 30.90%)
– collisional margins produced by terminal collision between two continents
(19.73%).
• Due to the geodynamic evolution of this area, rift basins (mainly formed due
to the opening of the Tethys oceans and to the extensional events affecting
North Africa) rapidly evolved to passive margins (e.g., evolution of the peri-
Gondwanan blocks) and then to active margins, with the development of
collision-related basins (e.g., foredeep related to the accretion of the peri-
Gondwanan blocks to the southern margin of Eurasia).
24
TETHYS OCEAN – OIL ACCUMULATION

25. TETHYS OCEAN – OIL ACCUMULATION
Berra and Angiolini , 2014
25

26. TETHYS OCEAN – SEALS
• Apart from marine shale and marl cap
rocks, many Middle East basins also
contain evaporite beds, which are
efficient seals because of their ductility.
The main evaporate horizons include;
– Triassic interbedded evaporates
– Late Jurassic Gotnia-Hith Formation
– Miocene Gachsaran Formation.
26
Sorkhabi, 2010

27. TETHYS OCEAN – OIL TRAPING
• Oil fields, located in the strongly
folded layers of the Zagros mountain
chains, are elongate and parallel to
the NW-SE trending folds. The
petroleum was trapped during folding
in the anticlines.
• On the Arabian Peninsula and in the
western part of the Arabian Gulf, the
oil fields trend N-S. Folds occur above
similarly oriented horst structures
which formed along normal faults in
the Precambrian basement of the
Arabian Shield.
• Circular oil fields in the eastern
Arabian Gulf formed above salt
diapirs that were formed by the rise
of Early Paleozoic salt deposits.
27
Frisch et al., 2010

28. CONCLUSIONS
• The Tethys Ocean developed in at least three oceanic basins:
– Proto-Tethys (Precambrian-Carboniferous).
– Paleo-Tethys (Ordovician-Jurassic).
– Neo-Tethys (Permian-Paleocene).
• The Paleo-Tethys formed by gathering the continents around its frame forming
the Pangaea as opposed to the Neo-Tethys that later formed by rifting.
• Palaeo-Tethys + the Cimmerian Continent + the Neo-Tethys and their continental
margins = “Tethyan Realm”
• A double orogenic system resulted from the destruction of the Tethyan Realm:
– the products of the closure of the Paleo-Tethys are the Cimmerides.
– the products of the closure of major parts of the Neo-Tethys are called the Alpides.
• Remnants of the Tethys Ocean include the Mediterranean, Caspian, Aral, and
Black Seas (Paratethys).
• The paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the southern Tethys area during
the Phanerozoic plays an important role in determining the distribution of the
source rocks and reservoirs as well as the origin of stratigraphic and tectonic
traps.
28

29. 29

30. • Dèzes, P., 1999. Tectonic and metamorphic evolution of the central Himalayan domain in
southeast Zanskar (Kashmir, India) (Vol. 145). Institute of Geology and Paleontology,
University of Lausanne.
• Muttoni, G., Gaetani, M., Kent, D.V., Sciunnach, D., Angiolini, L., Berra, F., Garzanti, E., Mattei, M.,
Zanchi, A., 2009. Opening of the Neo-Tethys Ocean and the Pangea B to Pangea A transformation
during the Permian. GeoArabia 14, 17–48.
• Frisch, W., Meschede, M., Blakey, R.C., 2010. Plate Tectonics: Continental Drift and Mountain
Building, 2011 edition. ed. Springer, Berlin; London.
• Berra, F. and L. Angiolini , 2014. The evolution of the Tethys region throughout the
Phanerozoic: A brief tectonic reconstruction, inL. Marlow, C. Kendall and L. Yose, eds.,
Petroleum systems of the Tethyan region: AAPG Memoir 106, p. 1–27.
• Stow, D., 2010. Vanished Ocean: How Tethys Reshaped the World. Oxford University Press,
Oxford.
• Erickson, J., 2002. Historical Geology: Understanding Our Planet’s Past, 2nd edition. ed. Facts
on File, New York.
• Sorkhabi, Rasoul (2010) Why So Much Oil in the Middle East? GeoExpro, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 20-
26).
REFERENCES
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32. 32

33. 33
Frisch et al., 2010

35. 35
Stow, 2010

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