File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [‎99v] (213/522)

2
No. 11.
Report on the Oil in the Naft Dagh or Jabal Karach between
Tuz Khurmatu and Kifri, and remarks on the Kitri Coal.
Maps.— 1 inch = 1 mile.
T.C. 211.
.T.C. 203.
S.W. corner of T.C. 251.
INTRODUCTION.
The area under report commences at the Quru Chai and embraces the hilly ground between
this and Kifri (Sallahiyah). In the N. W„ this hilly ground forms a belt between two plains but
S. E.’wards the northerly plain ceases and the hilly tract becomes continuous with that of Kam
Oadir to the N. Many of the footpaths marked on the map have fallen into disuse or do not
exist and progress across the hills is most wearisome. An attempt has been m ‘id e f° differentiate
on the map the five phases or zones of the Red Clay and Sandstone Senes. Th ese boundaries
are by no means well-defined ; in places they are frankly impossible to identify and have been
drawn partly by interpolation between areas where the division is more recognisable. In spite o
this, in the great majority of traverses, they express an actual though gradual change from one
zone to the other.
The Naft Dagh and its continuation the Karach Dagh form the core of a N. W. S. E. sinuous
anticline, overfolded towards the S. W., and, at least in places, fold-faulted. Furthermore it is
not a simple fold, but is contorted in varying degrees. It is tightly isoclinal, and actual crests either
of the parent anticline or of its minor puckers are very seldom visible. Most of the contortion in
the vicinity of the Palkanah oil pits can be followed ; some idea of it is given m the ske c
sections.
ROCKS.
The rocks consist of a core of Ears beds comprising the usual bands of gypsum, limestone,
and green and red clays, succeeded by the Red Clay and Sandstone Series (Uppei Pars of r. J.
Brown). The rocks of the latter series have been described in former reports and can be divided
into 4 or 5 more or less distinct phases or zones, each one passing gradually up into the other.
The lowest three zones form what I have alluded to as the Lower Stage of the series. In the
Upper or Conglomeratic Stage two phases can, I think, be recognized and these may be higher
zones not yet seen. The beds may be tabulated thus :—
Red Clav and Sandstone Series
f Upper (Conglomeratic) Stage
L Lower Stage
f Zone c.
Zone d.
Zone c.
<( Zone b.
Zone a.
Zone “a” is characterised by abundance of red clay with comparatively few sandstone
bands which are thinner, more argillaceous and therefore finer in texture, and more deep y
iron-stained than those of the succeeding zone. These characteristics are not a way
simultaneously present. Sometimes sandstone is almost as plentiful as it m „ he " Z- 01 ^
but the bands are less massive and redder m colour (as m the Aq Su section), 01
they consist of numerous thin-iron stained bands with a considerable P r °P°rti°n ^
argillaceous material. This zone coincides with a belt of lower-lying and less i ugged country
between the range of the Fars outcrop on the one hand and the senes of sandstone ridges
forming zone “ b ”, on the other ; it is usually occupied by a large, open, winding, longitudi ,
compound valley. Thin layers of selenite derived from the Fars gypsum and often a thm
layer of marl are found among the lowest horizons of this zone. Between the Kurab Chai and
Kifri no distinction between zones “ a ” and ‘ b ” can be recognized.
Zone " b ” is characterised by many thick massive sandstone bands, which, the> do not
actually preponderate in bulk over the inter-bedded clays, are of more importance than they are
elsewhere The sandstone or sandrock is soft, moderately friable, hght-coloured frequently
current-bedded, and sometimes full of root-like concretions ; it is coaiset and less argi ‘ ^ the
that in zone “ a ” The bands increase in thickness towards the middle of the z ,
too the separating clays become thicker and thicker, and assume the light brown co1 ^
typical of the next zone, while the sandstones become pebbly and contain thin ■"ter-bedded
layers of conglomerate. This zone forms a belt of high-lying country between e
lying belts of “ a ” and “c”; it produces rugged topography consisting of ridge after
rapidly alternating with deep, narrow, straight, simple valleys.

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