The development of marine biotechnology in Oman: Potential for capacity building through open innovation

This study examines the current state of the art in the emerging and strategically important marine biotechnology sector in Oman, which has a long coastline, rich marine heritage and strong fishing industry. In a knowledge-based economy, the ability to innovate is a key factor for increasing organisational competitiveness and this may be achieved using open innovation. This is the use by firms of external knowledge, ideas and technology to innovate. In this study, the extent of open innovation in Omani marine bioindustry companies has been studied by examining data from the top sixteen companies ranked by number of employees. The results indicate that the extent of openness in these companies is higher towards market side activities. In addition, the use of open innovation to increase collaboration between companies, Universities and government research institutes needs to be significantly strengthened.     

Role of fluvial and structural processes in the formation of the Wahiba Sands, Oman: A remote sensing perspective

The Wahiba Sands in northeastern Oman are bordered on the north, south and west by highlands. Remote sensing data are used to characterize the region between 19–23.5°N and 56.5–60°E by mapping surface and near-surface drainage, faults and fractures and aeolian features. It is suggested that the sands were originally deposited with surface runoff from the principal wadis and fluvially reworked fault zones, which define the northeastern and southwestern margins. These fluvial processes resulted in the accumulation of the vast groundwater resources now stored there. During dry climates, wind became the principal modification regime and it began to sort and shape the sediments into the dune forms that characterize today's Wahiba region. The thickness of the sands reflects the depth of the basin in which they lie. The center of the basin is filled with the thickest sand (the High Sands) and contains the highest groundwater concentrations. Presently, aeolian reworking dominates in the Wahiba region, although the Low and the Peripheral Sands continue to experience some fluvial action from occasional, seasonal rainfall. Even though dry conditions dominate today, it is clear that similar to the Sahara of North Africa, the surface sands of the Wahiba basin are indicators of groundwater occurrence.     

The importance of semi-arid natural mountain pastures for feed intake and recycling of nutrients by traditionally managed goats on the Arabian Peninsula

Goat husbandry in Oman’s Hajar Mountains supplies income and manure to farmers. An earlier analysis concluded that it uses purchased feeds inefficiently, but did not value the contribution of mountain pastures to goat nutrition and cropland fertilization. Therefore intake of pasture vegetation, cultivated forages and purchased feeds was determined in goats from three villages in spring and autumn 2005. Faecal excretion was quantified using TiO₂ and diet digestibility was calculated from faecal nitrogen (N).Organic matter (OM) intake varied from 71 to 107 g kg^−0.75 d⁻¹. Pasture vegetation supplied 45-71% of OM intake, and at least 28%, 33% and 42% of phosphorus (P), metabolizable energy (ME) and N intake. While ME intake just covered maintenance and locomotion requirements, N and P intake exceeded the animals’ requirements. Therefore faecal concentrations (g kg⁻¹ OM) of 26-36 g N and 4-8 g P were high, making goat dung a key element of sustainability for the local cropping systems.Since mountain pastures supply nutrients to goats and cropland, their long-term productivity is crucial. Feeding cultivated forages seemingly reduces intake on pasture, but a comprehensive evaluation of nutritional and economic implications of this strategy and possible alternatives is needed.     

Turbidite system architecture and sedimentary processes along topographically complex slopes: the Makran convergent margin

This study investigates the morphology and Late Quaternary sediment distribution of the Makran turbidite system (Makran subduction zone, north‐west Indian Ocean) from a nearly complete subsurface mapping of the Oman basin, two‐dimensional seismic and a large set of coring data in order to characterize turbidite system architecture across an active (fold and thrust belt) margin. The Makran turbidite system is composed of a dense network of canyons, which cut into high relief accreted ridges and intra‐slope piggyback basins, forming at some locations connected and variably tortuous paths down complex slopes. Turbidite activity and trench filling rates are high even during the Holocene sea‐level highstand conditions. In particular, basin‐wide, sheet‐like thick mud turbidites, probably related to major mass wasting events of low recurrence time, drape the flat and unchannellized Oman abyssal plain. Longitudinal depth profiles show that the Makran canyons are highly disrupted by numerous thrust‐related large‐scale knickpoints (with gradients up to 20° and walls up to 500 m high). At the deformation front, the strong break of slope can lead to the formation of canyon‐mouth ‘plunge pools’ of variable shapes and sizes. The plunge pools observed in the western Makran are considerably larger than those previously described in sub‐surface successions; the first insights into their internal architecture and sedimentary processes are presented here. Large plunge pools in the western Makran are associated with large scoured areas at the slope break and enhanced sediment deposition downstream: high‐amplitude reflectors are observed inside the plunge pools, while their flanks are composed of thin‐bedded, fine‐grained turbidites deposited by the uppermost part of the turbidity flows. Thus, these architectural elements are associated with strong sediment segregation leading to specific trench‐fill mechanisms, as only the finer‐grained component of the flows is transferred to the abyssal plain. However, the Makran accretionary prism is characterized by strong along‐strike variability in tectonics and fluvial input distribution that might directly influence the turbidite system architecture (i.e. canyon entrenchment, plunge pool formation or channel development at canyon mouths), the sedimentary dynamics and the resulting sediment distribution. Channel formation in the abyssal plain and trench‐fill characteristics depend on the theoretical ‘equilibrium’ conditions of the feeder system, which is related closely to the balance between erosion rates and tectonic regime. Thus, the Makran turbidite system constitutes an excellent modern analogue for deep‐water sedimentary systems with structurally complex depocentres, in convergent margin settings.     

Significance of gabbronorite occurrence in the crustal section of the Semail ophiolite

The eastern end of the Haylayn massif exposes a complex paleoridge structure interpreted as the tip of a northwestward propagating segment (Nicolas et al., this issue). The area, revisited from a petrostructural and geochemical viewpoint, offers the most documented exposures of the association of olivine gabbros and gabbronorites in Oman (Juteau et al., 1988). Gabbronorites were injected while the main gabbro unit was deforming in the magmatic state. Both units do not differ chemically, except for the SiO₂ enrichment of the orthopyroxene-rich gabbros relative to olivine-gabbro. In addition, they display the same trace element signature, which implies the same parent magma for both units. The extension of the stability field of orthopyroxene is assigned to increase of oxygen fugacity due to hydration. The source of hydration is the ridge axis hydrothermal circulation, suggesting hydrothermal/magma interaction at temperatures above the gabbro solidus. The distribution of gabbronorites at the scale of the entire ophiolite suggests a relation with ridge tectonics where high-T conditions of hydrothermal-magmatic interaction are met. Such conditions are met when propagating segments rotate the structures of the dying magma chamber.     

Petrology of Late Jurassic allochthonous ultramafic lamprophyres within the Batain Nappes,Northeastern Oman

ABSTRACT

Late Jurassic ultramafic lamprophyre (UML) sills and dikes occur as 3 km-long intrusions within the allochthonous Whara Formation of the Batain nappes, eastern Oman. The sills and dikes comprise macrocrystic phlogopite and spinel-bearing aillikite and damtjernite. Aillikite is a light grey, massive fine-grained tuffaceous rock with euhedral laths of mica, while damtjernite is a dark grey, medium- to coarse-grained rock with abundant pelletal lapilli and globular segregationary textures. Both lithologies are composed of calcite, phlogopite, apatite, magnetite, spinel, diopside, and richterite. Orthoclase occurs only within damtjernite. The rocks are strongly silica undersaturated (17.6–33.7 wt.% SiO₂), with low MgO (4.7–10.2 wt. %) and high Al₂O₃ (3.5–8.6 wt.%). The aillikites are distinguished from the damtjernites by their lower SiO₂, Al₂O₃, and Na₂O abundances, and their higher MgO, CaO, and P₂O₅ contents. The rare earth element (REE) patterns of both rock types are similar and show strong light REE (LREE) enrichment. Both are enriched in Ba, Th, U, Nb, and Ta, with normalized concentrations of up to 1000 times those of primitive mantle. Relative depletions are apparent for high REE (HREE), K, Rb, Pb, Sr, P, Zr, and Hf. The rocks have initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of 0.70435–0.70646, whereas initial ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd ratios vary between 0 · 512603 and 0 · 512716 (εNd_i 2.6–3.2). Pb isotopic ratios are more varied among the aillikites and damtjernites: ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_i = 38.97–39.39 and ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_i = 15.35–15.58, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb_i = 18.08–18.96. The abundance of phlogopite, apatite, and rutile and enrichment in LREEs, Ba, Th, U, Nb, and Ta in the Sal UMLs suggest metasomatic enrichment of these rocks following a low degree of partial melting of a depleted source region. Ar–Ar age dating of phlogopite macrocrysts from the aillikites and damtjernites (154 and162 Ma, respectively) correlates with large-scale tectonic events recorded in the proto-Indian Ocean at 140–160 Ma.     

Offneria arabicanov. sp. (rudiste, Caprinidae) de l''Aptien inférieur du Jebel Madar (Sultanat d''Oman)

Offneria arabicanov. sp. (rudiste, Caprinidae) est caractérisé par la simplicité de l'architecture de la valve supérieure, bien exprimée par la forme subrectangulaire des canaux où les planchers sont relativement rares, et le faible développement des tabulae. La valve inférieure est beacoup plus complexe, ce qui traduit un taux d'evolution différencié des deux valves. L'espèce a été) trouvée dans l'Aptien inférieur (Formation Shuaiba) du Jebel Madar, dans l'avant pays des nappes des Montagnes d'Oman. Son organisation la rattache au groupe des formes arabo-africaines. A côté de ses caractères évolutifs, elle est intéressante par son potentiel biostratigraphique et paléobiologéographique.

Abstract

Offneria arabicanov. sp. (rudist, Caprinidae) is characterized by the simplicity of the upper valve, well expressed by the subrectangular shape of the canals where horizontal partitions are relatively rare, and the weak development of the tabulae. The lower valve is far more complex, which means distinctive evolutionary rates for the two valves. The species was found in the Lower Aptian (Shuaiba Formation) of the Jebel Madar, in the foreland of the Oman Mountain nappes. By its overall organisation it belongs to the Arabo-African group of species. Besides its evolutionary characters this form is interesting because of its biostratigraphic and palaeobiogeographic potential.     

Chromite in the mantle section of the Oman ophiolite: A new genetic model

Abstract   This paper reviews the compositional data (major elements, platinum group element [PGE] concentrations, Os- and O-isotopes) for chromites from the mantle section of the Oman ophiolite. Chromites in chromitite from the Oman ophiolite lie on a compositional spectrum between high-Cr♯, boninite-like and low-Cr♯, mid-oceanic ridge basalt-like end-members. The high-Cr♯ end-member is low in Ti, has a fractionated PGE pattern and is enriched in iridium group-platinum group elements (IPGE). The low-Cr♯ end-member has higher Ti and an unfractionated PGE pattern. The compositional variation in the chromitites reflects their crystallization from a range of different melt compositions. It is proposed that this wide variation in melt compositions was produced by the process of a melt–rock reaction, whereby a basaltic melt has reacted with harzburgitic mantle to yield successively more Cr-rich melts. In contrast to previous models, this approach does not require a change in the tectonic environment to explain the different chromite types.     

Formation and exhumation of blueschists and eclogites from NE Oman: new perspectives from Rb–Sr and 40Ar/39Ar dating

Seven eclogite facies samples from lithologically different units which structurally underlie the Semail ophiolite were dated by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and Rb–Sr methods. Despite extensive efforts, phengite dated by the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method yielded saddle, hump or irregularly shaped spectra with uninterpretable isochrons. The total gas ages for the phengite ranged from 136 to 85 Ma. Clinopyroxene–phengite, epidote–phengite and whole‐rock–phengite Rb–Sr isochrons for the same samples yielded ages of 78 ± 2 Ma. We therefore conclude that the eclogite facies rocks cooled through 500 °C at c. 78 ± 2 Ma, and that the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dates can only constrain maximum ages due to the occurrence of excess Ar inhomogeneously distributed in different sites. Our new results lead us to conclude that high‐pressure metamorphism of the Oman margin took place in the Late Cretaceous, contemporaneous with ophiolite emplacement. Previously published structural and petrological data lead us to suggest that this metamorphism resulted from intracontinental subduction and crustal thickening along a NE‐dipping zone. Choking of this subduction zone followed by ductile thinning of a crustal mass wedged between deeply subducted continental material and overthrust shelf and slope units facilitated the exhumation of the eclogite facies rocks from depths of c. 50 km to 10–15 km within c. 10 Ma, and led to their juxtaposition against overlying lower grade rocks. Final exhumation of all high‐pressure rocks was driven primarily by erosion and assisted by normal faulting in the upper plate.     

The factors controlling the expansive nature of the soils and rocks of northern Oman

The factors controlling the expansive nature of the soils and rocks in Northern Oman were studied. Basic geotechnical data from over 40 sites were collected and using empirical relationships, swelling potentials were identified. A laboratory testing program was carried out using undisturbed samples from these swell pressures up to 3.5 MPa, and swell percent values up to 30 were measured. The clay minerals and cations of these samples were determined and Na-smectite was identified as being the main clay-mineral present. Microfabric studies showed generally dense clay matrices. However, these swelling materials exist as impersistent bands with non-swelling soils and rocks which makes prediction of the ground heave problematic.