Where the eastern Abu Dhabi the Holocene coast trends northeast southwest and the barrier/lagoon complex narrows, oolites form on inter island tidal deltas adjacent to small patches of coral reef restricted to channels and just seaward of the center of the islands. To the west, coral reefs grow along the northern edges of most of the offshore banks north of the Khor al Bazam.

Protected lagoons occur south of the barriers of eastern Abu Dhabi and carbonate muds and pellets accumulate, whereas to the west of Al Dhabaiya Island, carbonate muds only accumulate in a narrow belt south of the offshore bank. Grapestones and skeletal debris are the dominant components in the lagoon to the south. The offshore bank is accreting seaward through a combination of coral growth and tidal delta progradation. South of this bank, supratidal flats with characteristic suites of carbonate/evaporate facies are encroaching on the lagoons through the development of beach ridges and cyanobacterial flats.

A comparison of the Holocene sedimentary facies of the surface to those of the subsurface Upper Jurrassic of the Central Arabian Gulf, suggests that Abu Dhabi coastal area can be used as a comparative model for understanding some ancient carbonate/evaporite depositional and diagenetic processes. Certainly at the pinch out between the Hith Anhydrite and the Asab Oolite there is reason to believe that these sediments accumulated in a nearshore to sabkha setting. Eastward of this margin the Hith changes its character and appears to have accumulated in a standing body of water as a playa.