Jebel al Abyad: A recent alkalic volcanic complex in western Saudi Arabia

Arabia, a supposedly aseismic plate, has been the site of extensive alkalic volcanism during the past 10 m.y. The products of this activity, which extend intermittently from Syria to south central Saudi Arabia, are strongly alkalic and primarily basic in composition. Examination of specimens from the Jebel al Abyad area in Saudi Arabia, which displays a particularly wide variety of rock types, suggests the parental melt moved rapidly from depth to high level chambers where most of the chemical variation was produced by crystal fractionation. N-S dilational fissures of regional extent seem to have allowed the melt easy and rapid egress and a low degree of partial melting in the mantle could account for the high total alkalis content. The high K/Rb ratio, which also characterizes the granitic rocks of the underlying Precambrian basement, is thought to reflect a source mantle particularly low in rubidium.