Nonglacial origin for conglomerate beds in the Wajid Sandstone of Saudi Arabia

Conglomerate beds containing sparse boulders in the upper part of the Wajid Sandstone of Permian or older(?) age have been interpreted as Gondwana glacial deposits (Helal, 1965). These beds, exposed in the Bani Khatmah area near the southeastern edge of the Arabian Shield of Saudi Arabia, contain normally graded polymictic conglomerate, commonly in fluvial channels cut into mature quartz sandstone. None of the features observed suggest deposition in a glacial environment. The conglomerate beds constitute a laterally and vertically restricted facies about 150 km wide in the quartz-sand facies of the Wajid.

Recent palynological evidence suggests that the Wajid Sandstone is of Cambrian or Ordovician age. The conglomerate of the Wajid is probably derived from locally uplifted Precambrian rocks in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. This is in contrast with an otherwise extensive, stable, deeply weathered, and low-lying Precambrian Shield that was the source of the predominant quartz sandstone of the Wajid during early Paleozoic time.