The International Conference on the Geology of the Arabian Plate and the Oman Mountains (ICGAPOM) was held on January 7–9, 2012. It was organized by Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and held in Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman. The conference was held twice in the past, in 1990 and 2000. This conference presented the latest developments in Oman and the region across a broad spectrum of Earthscience disciplines, including sedimentary and hard-rock geology, base and precious metals industry, petroleum geology, groundwater, geophysics, and geohazards. The 2012 conference consisted of several hundred presentations and numerous field trips. The following main themes were covered: the Arabian Plate Lithosphere and Boundaries, the Sedimentary Cover of the Arabian Plate, Hydrocarbon Systems of Arabia, Ophiolite Genesis and the Oman Mountains, and Environment and Water Resources. The objectives of the conference are to provide a forum for presenting recent research on the geologic framework of the Arabian Plate, to encourage the exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences between scientists regarding the geological evolution of the region and to promote the sustainable development of Arabia. The following abstracts were selected for publication in GeoArabia because they are of particular interest to petroleum geoscience readers. A special publication titled “Tectonic Evolution of the Oman Mountains” will be issued by the Geological Society of London (GSL) mainly based on the conference papers. A previous GSL Special Publication No. 49, “The Geology and Tectonics of the Oman Mountains”, was extremely successful and was reprinted into a second edition. This proposed volume seeks to update the geological, geophysical and geochemical data on the greater Oman region. The volume will concentrate on the geology of the Oman Mountains, the foreland region, the salt basins of Central Oman, the Batain Coast and Masirah Ophiolite and the basement complex.

The International Conference on the Geology of the Arabian Plate and the Oman Mountains (ICGAPOM) was held on January 7–9, 2012. It was organized by Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and held in Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman. The conference was held twice in the past, in 1990 and 2000...