The western part of the Shuqra volcanic field,South Yemen

The western part of the Shuqra volcanic field consists of a wide area of geologically recent alkali basalt flows and numerous cinder cones, overlying a faulted monoclinal sequence of Jurassic limetones dipping towards the Gulf of Aden and themselves overlying Precambrian basement. The volcanic activity is substantially younger than the series of central vent volcanoes forming the Aden line somewhat to the west along the coast, and the volcanic products are more uniformly basaltic and more silica-undersaturated than those of the Aden volcanoes. Preliminary chemical data reveal an unusual whole-rock compositional trend within the Shuqra lavas which is not explicable in terms of the fractionation of the sparse phenocrysts they contain. A widespread suite of megacrysts not in equilibrium with their host liquids includes hornblende, pleonaste spinel, olivine, plagioclase and clinopyroxene. These may have a close genetic connection with the lavas and possibly represent fragments of refractory source material.