Modern Sabkhas as analogue to the Jurassic source rocks of U.A.E

United Arab Emirates coastline provides a special environment where microbial mats thrive. The main organic components of microbial mats are cyanobacteria and sulphur purple bacteria. These organisms colonize extreme environments, which vary in temperature and salinity rates. Coastal sabkha environment is such a type of extreme environment, where these communities grow. Moreover, this constitutes a characteristic environment of the U.A.E., mainly composed by carbonates and evaporitic minerals. The study of microbial mats included the chemical analysis of organic material, open column chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, Rock Eval pyrolysis and organic carbon content measurement. This enabled the estimation of organic material distribution through the intertidal zone as well as the vertical variation, measured from core sections. Additionally, connection of these data with the petroleum system of the Upper Jurassic was achieved, by calculating the potential expelled volumes and generation times. Organic material gets lower values from the Medial to Upper Intertidal zone, showing the contribution of the sea-water to microbial productivity and preservation.