Rak and Jebel Jais

Recently I was doing some geological field work with a team of people around Ras-al-Khaimaah, fondly called RAK in short. For those who haven't been this part of the world, it is bare and stunningly pretty in its own way. I didn't have much time to explore and see the sights, as we are mostly stuck to the rocks :) Still there were enough interesting shots I captured during this trip and been to some great places.

Above is the money shot at the top of Jebel Jais at the border between UAE and Oman. You can see the Persian gulf in the distance. However, what we were looking at mostly here is the the Jurassic rocks that we here standing, with Triassic below; are thrusted over the younger Cretaceous rocks seen in the distance near the coast line.

I rarely do this, but to explain that view view above, there is no option but to use a geological cross section and a map. So here it goes:

Source

The first picture from the top of Jebel Jais is the approximate are of the geological section marked Hagab Thrust. What we did afterward is we drove down to the coast line, and looked sideway similar to this cross section. This is what we can see:

This is a panoramic view from Sha'am Fishing Boat Harbour, at the coastline, just north of the town of Sha'am. Jebel Jais, the first is at the top right most part of the skyline. Essentially we are looking at the frontal part of the steep forelimb of the hanging wall of the Hagab Thrust (see the geologic cross section), where Cretaceous carbonate rocks are are folded and dipping into the ocean. There you have it! Travel and Geology at the same time. This is how we roll!

Rugged beauty of RAK

So RAK is the northernmost of the seven emirates that makes UAE. For those who doesn't know this:

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation located in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula, comprises seven distinct emirates. Each emirate maintains considerable autonomy, while also participating in federal structures

Source

Hopefully this simple map helps you orient yourself. In fact I have seen tourist travelling there in RAK who are clueless on how many emirates there are and absolutely clueless on where they are in the world :) Modern day travel with GPS enables google maps and car services can do amazing things to your brain! You can be everywhere without much problem, but remain clueless about orientation the moment anyone takes the phone away from you. In fact the map above is not a simple map with numerous enclave and exclaves, it is rather difficult to orient yourself in northern UAE even with the knowledge of this map.

We went over that geologic cross section in 4 days.

• Semail Ophiolite
• Dibba
• Musandum Mountains
• Pabdeh Basin

Each day were dedicated to each of the geologic provinces. The type picture of the two of the provinces you have already seen. The Jebel Jais picture is in the Musandum Mountains, and the Sha'am coastal picture is perhaps a representative of the Pabdeh basin along the coast line. That said a lot of the aerial coverage is the Semail Ophiolite.

Ophiolite is a nothing buy a fragment of oceanic crust (and upper mantle) that is now thrusted up (due to a process called obduction, when two continent collides), and is exposed at the surface. Semail Ophiolite happened when Greater part of Iranian Plate collided with Arabian Plate and the Tethys Ocean was closed forming the present day Oman mountains.

Anyways it is hard to talk about this landscape without talking deep into Geology. Pardon me for this as I typical don't like to talk in jargon, and geology is all about that.

So one of the days, I think it was the first day, and we were deep into the Ophiolite terrain along a dirt road. There was a single ranch house at the end of this dirt road, kilometers from paved road and seems a million miles from civilization. It was late afternoon and we were looking at the rocks of the lunar landscape, in fact a landscape of rocks that belongs to the mantle, and this yellow school bus shows up! Can you believe this? This extremely modern looking looking school bus dropping kids to that single house at the end of the road! If that is not out of the place, I don't know what is!

Then we have this goat standing in the mantle, quite literally! I know you guys are not getting the kick out of it probably, but I did!

Got to show you camels. By the way, these are domestic, belongs to that ranch house you see, the low walls in the distance.

Yes, geologists go crazy and becomes instagram photographers when they see camels!

The landscape here is dry and rugged, here is the evidence. It rarely rains here.

But then you drive a few kilometers and you will end up by the Gulf of Oman!

There you have it. I hope you like it.