Physiographically, Kuwait is located between the northern part of the Arabian Gulf coastal region , the southern borders of Dibdibah gravel plain and the lower Mesopotamian plain of Iraq. It is bordered to the west by Ad-Dahna Sand Sea of Saudi Arabia and to the east by the Arabian Gulf.

Kuwait has desert topography of low to moderate relief. This flat sandy desert can be roughly divided into two regions. The northern region is hard, flat stone desert with shallow depressions. Low hills run northeast to southwest and end near Ar-Raudhatain; an area of underground water storage. The principal hills in the north are Jal Az-Zor (145 meters) and Jal Al-Liyah. The southern region is a treeless plain covered by sand. Al-Ahmadi hill, 125 meters high, is the sole exception to the flat terrain. Wadi Al-Batin and Ash-Shaqq are the only major valleys, portions of which lie within the western and southern reaches of the country, respectively.

Rocks ranging in age from early Miocene (about 24 million years) to Recent are exposed within the boundaries of Kuwait. The oldest exposed rocks in Kuwait are those of Middle Eocene age (about 47 million years). Dammam Limestone form the Ahmadi Ridge to the south of Kuwait City.

The northern coastal part of Kuwait, where the islands of Warbah and Bubyan are located, is believed to be the site of deltaic and estuarine deposition by the Tigris-Euphrates River system.

Geologically, the land of Kuwait consists of flat-lying Tertiary rocks (less than 66 million years old), overlying gently folded Cretaceous and Jurassic formations (65 to 208 million years old). Rock types exposed in outcrops include the Eocene Dammam Formation, a white fine-grained cherty limestone showing some karst development at its contact with the overlying Miocene and Pliocene age Fars and Ghar Formations. This is an indication of sub-aerial exposure and erosion. The Fars and Ghar Formations are primarily calcareous sandstones, sandy limestones, clay and sand. As much as half of the deposit is unconsoli-dated sands.

Completing the section above the Far and Ghar Formations is Dibdibah Formation, which is divided into upper and lower members based on grain size. The lower member is a gritty sandstone whereas the upper is a coarser, more pebbly sandstone. The Dibdibah Formation is composed of wide fluvial fan deposits in the north and northwestern parts of Kuwait. These channels cut about three meters deep. Quarternary deposits include lag gravels that blanket much of the interior of Kuwait, and coastal deposits including unconsolidated marine sands, mudflats and supratidal sabkha surfaces. The Dibdibah Formation covers most of the northern area of Kuwait. It consists of a fluviatile sequence of ungraded, often cross-bedded sands and gravels with subordinate intercalations of layers of sandy clays. These sediments are mostly cemented by diagenetic evaporites.

The gravels and pebbles are composed of metamorphic and igneous rock debris derived from the Najd Peneplain and the Hijaz Plateau in Saudi Arabia. Structurally, Kuwait lies on the Arabian Shield, an area noted for its stability since Cambrian times (more than 505 million years ago). The Arabian Shield tilts slightly to the northeast, giving rise to the sedimentation of the Arabian Shelf. This consists of a sequence of thin, laterally extensive limestones, marls, shales, sandstones and evaporites. North-south trending anticlinal features have developed with gentle warping and uplift, many of which serve as structural traps for Kuwait's oil reservoirs. In addition to cratonic warping, evidence for salt diapirs exists on anticlinal structures. Of particular interest is the presence of very strong northeast and southwest trending lineament features which may reflect structural controls. The most striking of these is the Wadi Al-Batin lineament which is a continuation of Wadi Ar-Rimah to the southwest in Saudi Arabia.