Structures and Tectonics of Kuwait

Abstract Despite the surface geology of Kuwait appears to be scarce and most of the country is covered with Quaternary deposits except for a few outcrops of Oligo-Miocene to Pleistocene age, the subsurface geology of Kuwait is quite unique and astonishing. The discovery of hydrocarbon in Kuwait at the beginning of the last century helped geologists to better understand the structural geology of Kuwait especially by utilizing geophysical methods such as potential field methods (e.g., gravity and magnetic) and seismic reflection. Being part of the Arabian Peninsula, the structural geology of Kuwait shares many of the Arabian Peninsula structural trends. The dominant N-S trending structures of the Arabian Plate are manifested in the Kuwait Arch which is one of the major structures of the country where many of the oil and gas oil fields are associated with. Other dominant structural trends of the Arabian Plate such as NE-SW and NW–SE are resembled in Kuwait as Jal Az-Zor and Dibdibah Trough, respectively. Paleo- and in-situ stress analysis is an important subject for oil and gas exploration, and many studies have been commissioned to better understand them in most of the Kuwaiti fields. The present-day in-situ stress in Kuwait is oriented NE-SW resembling the current tectonic setting of the region due to the collision of the Arabian Plate with the Eurasia Plate since the Oligocene. This chapter will present a thorough review of the previous studies discussing the surface and subsurface structural geology of Kuwait.