POST-NAPPES EARLY TERTIARY FORAMINIFERAL PALEOECOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN HAFIT AREA, SOUTH OF AL-AIN CITY (UNITED-ARAB-EMIRATES)

The small benthic and planktic foraminiferal fauna of the northern Hafit area in the United Arab Emirates is illustrated and the vertical variations in its constitution in two sections are discussed. Four bathymetrically significant groups of foraminiferal assemblages are recognized. A comparison of the vertical variations in bathymetry in the various planktic foraminiferal chronozones established in the studied sections with the global eustatic curve of Haq et al. (1987) suggests that the area was tectonically disturbed during the late Lutetian (Globorotalia (Morozovella) lehneri Zone) and the Priabonian. In Priabonian times also, the area was actively subsiding causing the deposition of frequent intervals of middle neritic marine sediments. Most of the gaps in sedimentation and sea level fluctuations recognized in the Hafit area are due to global eustatic changes (as the gaps between the middle and late Lutetian, the Priabonian and the early Oligocene, and the middle Oligocene and the Miocene). Some of these fluctuations, however, are also periods of marked tectonic activity (mainly the fluctuations observed in the area in the late Lutetian and the gap between the Eocene and the early Oligocene, as well as the hiatus corresponding to the late Oligocene).