ABSTRACT
The inland sabkhas of the Huqf occupy a more or less continuous NNE-SSW trending depression some 170 km long and up to about 40 km wide. They are sub-parallel to the coast and mostly over 25 km from it. The largest area of sabkha is the Sabkha Fuwat ash Sham (Sabkha of Ill Omen), which is fringed by the northern hills of the Huqf and occupies much of the site of a probable former shallow lake. Farther south, there is a gradation into the salt-encrusted sand and gravel-rich channel of Wadi Jurf, which probably used to feed another former shallow lake before passing through an erosional gap in the hills and merging to the SE with an almost featureless coastal sabkha just north of Duqm. The fluvial origin of some of these areas of sabkha indicates increasing aridity over the past few millenia. Capilliary-assisted salt weathering is responsible for ‘rotting’ many areas of former outcrop.
