The outcrop photo shows what is commonly known as the Grand Canyon of the Middle East: Wadi Ghul and Wadi Nakr in the Jebel Shams Massif in northern Oman. From base to top, the rock record tells the Mesozoic story of drowning of the Arabian platform in Jurassic times, shallowing during the Cretaceous with various phases of carbonate platform build-out, and final drowning again towards the end of the Cretaceous when the source rocks of the Natih Formation were deposited before the region was uplifted due to the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates, starting in the Late Eocene, to form the mountain range and canyon we see today.
