​Dr. Aboud Afifi, ANPERC's newest faculty member, has just taken his students on a trip to Usfan and Shumayshi in the Jeddah area. Braving some unseasonably warm weather, students in Dr. Afifi's geology course Special Topics in Energy Geoscience examined outcrops of sedimentary rocks which filled the rift valley that preceded the opening of the Red Sea. This is only the most recent example of how KAUST students benefit being next to the planet's youngest ocean, and the dedication of ANPERC faculty to conducting field research. Special thanks to PhD student Indah Putri for capturing this experience in photos.

Students and post docs from multiple research groups at ANPERC, and other KAUST students, participated in the trip.

The Usfan and Shumaysi areas are about an hour outside of Jeddah.

PhD student Akbar Wicaksono

Dr. Afifi, left, gives his students a lesson on the geology of the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea.

PhD student Daniela Ortiz

PhD student Farrukh Kamoliddinov

An oolitic ironstone composed of small sphere of iron oxides, formed around 28 million years ago during the earliest stage of rifting that resulted in the opening of the Red Sea.

PhD students Indah Putri (left) and Daniela Ortiz (right)