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UAE Geological Diversity contains numerous sub-environments that support the country’s diverse plant and animal life and geological wonders. The UAE’s biogeographical location improves its potential natural biodiversity, geological formations, and diversification of the UAE—the beaches and Sabkha of the Coastal Plains are interspersed by lagoons, mangroves, and even rocky headlands. The Sand Deserts range from massive quartz dunes inland to white carbonate sands in the Gulf.
They are becoming more vegetated in the northeast, merging with the Alluvial Plain. The mountain regions are extremely have biological diversity in many ways. The Hajar Mountains are mostly made up of a collection of rocks known as ‘ophiolite’, which were formerly part of the ocean crust and upper mantle. Other studies have linked ophiolite sedimentary rocks in the UAE to low plant diversity and high endemism.
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UAE Geological Diversity
Hajar Mountain wadis provide distinct freshwater environments for a rich range of life and diverse geological features. The carbonate mountains of the Ru’us Al Jibal range, the Musandam mountains, and Jebel Hafeet differ greatly from the Hajar Mountains in terms of physiology, geochemistry, hydrology, and floristic composition. The tectonic collision between Arabia and Eurasia, which began some 30 million years ago, allowed for considerable exchange of terrestrial and freshwater creatures. The Arabian Gulf is a shallow continental depression that has emerged multiple times at glacially decreased sea levels in the geological map of UAE.
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UAE Geological Diversity & Geographical Naturalist Introduction
The UAE geological diversity of a specific location comprises the different landforms that we can see there and the physical qualities and characteristics that are associated with them, including global geographical position (latitude and longitude), elevation, surface composition (rock, soil, sand, marsh, etc.), slope, surface roughness, hydrology (plumbing), and proximity to major water bodies, as well as climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind, The description of a location’s geography includes vegetation cover, height, and density.
Although the Emirates UAE is not a large country, it features several physical landscapes that are unique on a global scale while remaining relatively accessible and safe to explore. A plus is that many of those ecosystems’ flora and fauna, as well as other phenomena, have yet to be thoroughly investigated, implying that discoveries await.
One distinction between stage sets and the real world is that real-world situations usually change over time, sometimes gradually and sometimes very quickly. The history of those changes can be read and understood by examining and interpreting the geological and geographical features we observe now. The prevailing plant and animal life of a place inevitably changes as the environment changes, but biological systems often take longer to change, so a place’s geological and geographical history, particularly its recent history, can limit current and even future possibilities for the local biosphere.
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Main UAE Geological Diversity Units
The distinctive UAE Geological Ethnic Diversity Units consist of four fundamental units, as shown below. The UAE now has four major geographical divisions:
- The Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman have coastal plains.
- Sand deserts in the west, south, and central UAE.
- Mountain regions in the eastern UAE.
- Alluvial plains flank the mountain ranges to the east and west.
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UAE Coastal Plains
The coastal plain is the more or less flat topography that stretches inland from the low tide line along UAE beaches for up to several kilometers before encountering terrain with more significant relief, typically dunes or, along the East Coast, mountain ranges or foothills.
Before modern development, the flat coastal plain along the Arabian Gulf was essentially unbroken between Sha’am in northern Ras Al Khaimah and the Sila’a peninsula on the Saudi Arabian border, except coastal hills at a few remote locations such as Ras Al Ayshand the Shuwaihat peninsula in the west of the Abu Dhabi emirate.
However, the coastal plain was (and continues to be) diverse. Although much of the old coastline has been drastically transformed, the Coastal Plain still includes the following:
- White sand beaches, particularly in the area between Ras Al Khaimah and Taweelah in Abu Dhabi.
- Coastal sabkha, or salt flats, particularly along the Arabian Gulf coast west of Abu Dhabi Island, are regarded as the world’s finest examples of this geologically significant ecosystem.
- Sheltered coastal lagoons (Arabic: khors), many of which are so shallow that they empty almost totally at low tide, revealing huge mudflats and a diverse range of intertidal marine life, including food resources used by hunter-gatherer predecessors.
- Mangrove forests are monospecific stands of the local mangrove Avicennia marina that occupy the intertidal zone, sometimes tall and dense, and represent the only true “forests” in the country, with the majority of them associated with coastal lagoons or channels representing the outlets of former terrestrial watercourses debouching to the sea.
- Salt marshes are stands of dwarf shrubs, sedges, and grasses that grow in the topmost intertidal zone, usually on the edges of coastal lagoons where freshwater input is concentrated.
- Outcrops of eroded coastal dunes and shallow marine sediments, mostly Pleistocene and Holocene (Recent) in age, reflect a long history of repeated emptying and filling of the Arabian Gulf due to ‘Ice Age’ sea level changes; also more substantial mesas of older, mostly Miocene sedimentary rocks, as at Ras Al Aysh and the Sila’a Peninsula.
- Rocky headlands/cliffs in the UAE’s East Coast, where prominent ridges or foothills of the Hajar Mountains stretch to the sea and form headlands at the water’s edge, such as in Khor Fakkan, Sharm, and Dadnah. In some areas, the coastal plain is nonexistent, and the beaches nearby may be covered with eroded and wave-tumbled boulders.
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Sand Deserts Sources
The majority of the UAE is covered in sand (technically, rock or mineral particles ranging in size from approximately 0.06 to 2.00 mm), however, the land surface is far from homogenous. Putting aside smaller-scale local variations, at least three overarching tendencies emerge.
First, the highest dunes and dune ridges are found in the south of Abu Dhabi, and they gradually decrease as they approach the Arabian Gulf coast. In the south, the dunes of the UAE are continuous with the Rub’ Al Khali, the famed Empty Quarter, which recalls the names of explorers such as Bertram Thomas, St. John Philby, and Wilfred Thesiger.
Second, the color of the sand varies from reddish inland to white along the coast, owing mostly to mineral composition differences. The majority of the sand in the interior was brought from the northwest and is the result of erosion of the rocks found in the mountains and plateaux of western and central Saudi Arabia, which were uplifted and exposed by the Red Sea’s rifting. That sand is mostly composed of quartz (SiO) grains, and the red color comes from trace amounts of iron that have been oxidized to hematite.
Local erosion from surrounding rock outcrops may contribute to the neighboring sands. Adjacent to the landlocked SabkhaMatti in western Abu Dhabi, the surface sand occasionally contains conglomerates suggesting paleo-rivers that formerly ran through the area, most likely 5-10 million years ago.
Third, in the northeast of the country, where the sands typically meet the alluvial gravel plains abutting the mountains, the dunes participate in a ballet of advance and retreat orchestrated by climate and performed in collaboration with floodwater runoff and alluvium. The dunes in this area have primarily advanced over the last 6000 years, as a previously wetter environment deteriorated.
Mountain Regions Chain
The mountains of the UAE are part of a range of mountains that runs parallel to the Gulf of Oman coast for more than 600 kilometers, from the tip of the Musandam peninsula practically to Ras al Hadd in Oman, at the southeastern tip of Arabia. These have several names, including the Oman Mountains, the Hajar Mountains, and the Oman/UAE Mountains. In the UAE, the mountain environment covers the majority of Fujairah, much of Ras Al-Khaimah, parts of Sharjah, and the Hatta and Masfut enclaves in Dubai and Ajman.
In terms of surface features, the UAE’s mountains are far more physically varied than its deserts, resulting in a higher range of microhabitats. The UAE’s mountain areas account for only around 5% of its total surface area, but the combination of more temperate temperatures, more rainfall, a range of heights, and a diversity of microhabitats gives the mountains a disproportionate share of the country’s biodiversity. Mountain areas are home to around 60% of the UAE’s native terrestrial plant species, with many of them found nowhere else.
Hajar Mountain Geology
The rocky hillsides of the Hajar Mountain geology often weather reddish-brown, although in road cuttings they can be greenish, blackish, or light. They are made up of a collection of connected igneous rocks known as ophiolite. (Igneous rocks are created by crystallization of hot, molten rock. They can occur on the earth’s surface, as in volcanic lavas, but they are most commonly formed by the slow cooling of molten rock deep inside the ground.
Harzburgite and gabbro are the two most common rock types found in the UAE’s ophiolite. Harzburgite, which represents exposures of the earth’s uppermost mantle, covers the majority of the northern areas (north of the Dhaid-Masafi-Fujairah roads, including Wadi Wurayah, Wadi Zikt, Wadi Madha, upper Wadi Shi, upper Wadi Siji, Wadi Asimah, and Wadi Maydaq), as well as a narrow belt along the west flank of the mountains.
In the southwest, harzburgite has tiny amounts of dunite, a rock type with a statistical mineral composition that varies by only a few percent. In most locations of harzburgite, the surface rock is extensively fragmented and produces steep, rubble-covered slopes that are extremely difficult to ascend; peaks are typically narrow, rocky ridges.
Mountain Wadi Environment
Major wadis in the Hajar Mountains can be exceedingly stark, and Wadi beds may appear to be almost barren of vegetation because they are periodically wiped clean by floodwaters that accumulate quickly from numerous smaller rivers. This is what happens to the majority of water that falls after heavy rains.
There is insufficient capacity in the gravel wadis, the network of subterranean fractures in the bedrock, or the very limited soils to absorb all of the water that falls in a short period during heavy rain, so much of it flows directly down the wadis and towards the mountain front as muddy, brown, turbulent floodwaters. Most Hajar Mountain drainages have had dams built in recent decades to try to prevent flood damage and collect excess water, making Abu Dhabi UAE a form of natural geological mountains.
Smaller wadis, which include tributaries of bigger wadis as well as the many steep ravines and gulleys that feed them, can be life oases. This is due in part to the low volume of flow in such channels, which does not uproot or flood little vegetation. However, it is equally crucial that part of the rainwater that falls reaches the shallow subsurface through crevices in the slopes’ bedrock, scree, and gravel terraces, where it remains long enough to support the native, dry-adapted plants.
Geological Metamorphic Rocks
The UAE’s Hajar Mountain region consists of two areas of generally pale-colored, often silvery, metallic-looking rocks: one around Asimah and Tayyibah, north of Masafi, and the other encompassing Wadi Shees, deep within the mountains overlooking the east coast and west of the Oman enclave of Madha.
Both places expose rocks that were originally deposited as sediments on the Arabian continent’s edge before being deformed and metamorphosed by partial subduction beneath the ophiolite slab, which is the leading edge of the oceanic plate to the east.
The Hajar Mountains were formed as a result of the emplacement of ophiolite rocks. Geological windows are named after the fact that they allow us to “see through” the ophiolite and view the rocks beneath it. Because of its link to the ophiolite, geologists refer to the metamorphic rocks collectively as the Metamorphic Sole.
Jebel Hafeet Fore Land Ridges
Jebel Hafeet, located on the outskirts of Al Ain in the Eastern Region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, is a foreland ridge approximately 25 kilometers from the main mountain front. It is the greatest by far of a series of comparable ridges reaching north almost to Dhaid, made up of tightly folded carbonate deposits much younger than those of the Ru’us al-Jibal.
Jebel Hafeet, which rises to 1200 meters, is the highest peak in the UAE’s Hajar Mountains, except for Jebel Hatta. It’s also 75 kilometers further south. The steep, rocky slopes are largely barren, but they are home to numerous plant species that are rare or missing elsewhere in the UAE, as well as several butterflies linked with those plants or more prevalent in Oman to the south. The smaller and more northerly ridges are generally found in Sharjah (Jebel Faya, Jebel Buhais, Jebel Mleiha) and are connected with unique floral features.
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Gravel Alluvial Plains
Gravel plains edge the UAE’s mountain regions to the east and west. The gravel plains at Ras Al Khaimah’s far northwest and along the entire east coast are equivalent to the coastal plain. The gravel plains are entirely made up of alluvium—weathering products from the neighboring mountains’ erosion, swept down the wadis by rushing water and eventually deposited in flatter, lower energy conditions beyond the mountainfront.
The gravel plains intersect with the mountain front in the upstream/uphill direction, and with the desert sands or coastal plain in the opposite direction. Rainfall and erosion rates have historically been far higher than they are now. Outwash gravels from the Hajar Mountains have been discovered in the subsurface beneath today’s Arabian Gulf coastal cities in the northern emirates, including Dubai, which lends credence to this claim.
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UAE Geological Diversity Highlights
Geological processes are all examined by earth scientists in general—ultimately regulating the world’s topography, oceans, atmosphere, cycling and recycling of diverse chemical and mineral components, and feedback mechanisms between those interconnected systems. Thus, geological processes eventually control life itself. The UAE’s classical bedrock geology, however, is rarely visible, especially in the northeastern mountain ranges.
Furthermore, in the UAE’s terrestrial ecosystems, bedrock geology is generally less relevant than other geographical considerations. The mountain regions constitute a rare exception. As a result, this is simply a summary of the most notable aspects of the UAE’s physical geology and geological history.
There are attempts to introduce the most essential conceptual components of the UAE’s geological history—those that provide context for understanding the dynamic evolution of the Arabian landscape as well as the plants and animals that inhabit it. The UAE’s geology is world-renowned for three reasons:
- The country’s vast oil reserves.
- The ophiolite rocks of the Hajar Mountains (which are extensively exposed in the UAE and Oman).
- Abu Dhabi’s modern-day coastal sabkha.
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What is the geographical condition of Dubai?
Dubai is located immediately within the Arabian Desert. However, Dubai’s topography differs greatly from that of the southern UAE in that sandy desert patterns dominate much of Dubai’s environment, whilst gravel deserts dominate much of the country’s southern part.
What is the geographic environment of the UAE?
The emirates are a mix of rocky deserts, coastal lowlands, wetlands, and waterless mountains. The beachfront is a sanctuary for migratory birds, attracting birdwatchers from all over the world; the country’s natural beaches and luxurious resorts have also lured international visitors.
What is the diversity of the UAE?
The UAE is known for its varied population, which includes citizens of over 200 nationalities. The country’s commitment to variety is seen in its friendly attitude toward people of all cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.
What are the geological features of the UAE?
The United Arab Emirates’ geology consists of very thick Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic marine and continental sedimentary rocks that overlie deeply buried Precambrian. The region contains abundant oil and gas reserves and has been deformed over the last several million years by more distant tectonic processes.
UAE Geological Diversity reveals the main geographical divisions of the UAE, highlighting the rich variety of geological features that define the United Arab Emirates. From the rugged mountains to the serene coastlines, the UAE’s natural environment showcases a remarkable range of landscapes. This diversity supports the country’s diverse plant life and provides a vivid map of the United Arab Emirates’ unique geological makeup. Exploring these wonders not only deepens our appreciation of the UAE’s natural beauty but also underscores the importance of preserving its unique geological heritage.
