Status of Regional Gravity Project, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as of 1 January, 1979

Abstract

Regional gravity data have now been obtained for approximately 33 percent of the area of the Arabian Shield, associated harrat areas, and the Red Sea coastal plain. Virtually no surveys have been done on the Phanerozoic platform around the edges of the shield, and although regional gravity coverage is available for the Eastern Province from the Arabian American Oil Company, it is confidential. Approximately 4,500 more gravity stations at 10 km spacing are needed to complete the coverage of the shield, and 5,250 are needed on the Phanerozoic platform to the north and east of the shield. The initial gravity maps compiled from the regional gravity project will be along the "geophysical strip", a band approximately 150 km wide across the shield from Al Qawayiyah to the Farasan Islands. As more data become available, additional maps will be compiled at 1:500,000 scale covering the same areas as the USGS Miscellaneous Investigations Maps 1-700-A to I-220-A. Computer software development and implementation for gravity data reduction, storage, retrieval, and display are 80 percent complete. Development and implementation of software for routine semi-quantitative and quantitative interpretation are 50 percent complete. If the Directorate General of Mineral Resources were to commit full support for the regional gravity project, phase 1 (data acquisition) and phase 2 (data reduction and publication of maps and principal facts) could be completed and phase 3 (interpretation) could be about 50 percent completed by the end of the Third Five Year Development Plan (1985).