Systematic Overview of the Geoheritage and Geodiversity of Monogenetic Volcanic Fields of Saudi Arabia

The western part of the Arabian Peninsula is the home of one of the most extensive if not the largest monogenetic volcanic province on Earth. Dispersed volcanism formed distinct volcanic fields from the East Anatolian Fault in southeast Türkiye all the way to northwest Yemen. Monogenetic volcanism was also recorded in the western side of the Red Sea in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti that are somehow linked to the more voluminous and extensive dispersed volcanism on the Arabian Plate. The western Arabian volcanic fields are diverse in geological sense and commonly exhibit all known geological and geomorphological features we tend to define monogenetic volcanism that is long-lived and sustained, commonly referred as mature. The maturity of the monogenetic fields here also adds an extra variable to consider its geological heritage, namely, their complex magmatic spectrum from the dominant mafic varieties to the rare more silicic extremities providing high geoheritage values for these sites. The global significance of such sites has been argued numerous times and the global linkages are clearly placing the western Arabian sites, where their dominant volcanic fields located in the territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Here, a comprehensive up-to-date summary is given to document the volcanic province as a major geosystem.