File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [‎101v] (217/522)

The Petroleum Indications of Kani Qadir and its
neighbourhood, including those of Gil.
Maps. — 1 inch = to 1 mile. T.C. 251. N. portion of T.C. 203.
INTRODUCTION.
This locality, some two marches N. of Kifri, is at present somewhat inaccessible owing to bad
roads. It is, unfortunately, more interesting from an academic than an economic point of view.
The oil occurrences lie along the N.E. foot of the Jabal Nasaz. Little of a recognizable anticlinal
structure remains, most of the S.W. limb having been cut out by a large reversed fault along which
the N.E. limb and perhaps a small portion of the crest have been thrust up over more than a mile
of strata. A narrow outcrop of Ears beds, striking N.W.—S.E. is thus brought into contact with
the Upper or Conglomeratic Stage of the Red Clay and Sandstone Series.
ROCKS.
Fars Series .—The Ears beds consist of a central core of limestone which, assuming the fault
to be a fold-fault, probably represents a more or less fractured anticlinal crest. This core on
the S.W. is bounded by the reversed fault ; on the N.E. it is succeeded by a band of clay and
sometimes a little gypsum, and then usually by another thin limestone band. Above this come
the Red Clays and Sandstones.
Red Clay and Sandstone Series .—In the Red Clay and Sandstone Series the three zones of the
Lower Stage, described in the last report, can be dimly recognized at the N. end of the area. Here
a soft belt of cultivated ground slopes down from the Fars outcrop to a N.W.’ Iv-flowing stream,
and consists mostly of clay whose superficial colour is more brown than red owing to the silt spilt
over it from the Conglomeratic Stage of the Jabal Nasaz ; this constitutes zone “ a ”. N.E. of the
stream sandstones become a little more frequent, and produce gradually rising ground as far as a
low watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. , but there is still much red clay present. Beyond the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. brown clays of
zone c become thickei and thicker until they practically monopolise the succession ; these brown
clays are seen stretching for a long distance N.E.’wards. The more sandy phase separating the
clays of a and c represents zone b ”. In the S. portion of the area there is the same belt
of cultivation, a similar longitudinal stream—S.E.’ly in this case—and rising ground beyond, but
sandstone ridges, though short and inconstant, are locally as plentiful in zone 11 a ” as in zone " b ”,
such as those Producing the hills immediately N.W. of Kani Qadir ; no definite line can be drawn
etween zones b and c ’ , the clay of the latter being redder than usual. In all three zones
c ay greatly predominates, and there is not so much of that regular system of parallel ridges
an valleys so typical of zone b”; the clay has thin sandy partings which indicate the dip very
precisely. S.W. of the Jabal Nasaz, between this range and the Tindanah ridge zone “ c ” is
exposed in a very broad fiat anticline pitching imperceptibly S.E3 wards ; it contains a few thin
conglomerate bands.
r . The Conglomeratic Stage is finely exposed in the prominent scarp of the Jabal Nasaz, and in
fact constitutes this range. The actual conglomerate zone, zone “d ”, as I have called it, reaches a
fnrfcno r 1C , S ere ( exa t>£ era ted in the section) than in any other locality so far visited, attaining
400-500 feet ; this zone might aptly be designated the “ Nasaz zone.” It consists of rapid alternations
o conglomerate and subordinate sandstone bands, dipping very gently in a N.E. direction, and
producing precipitous cliffs of some magnitude on the S.W. The dip slope shows the usual
in nca e issec ion an very rounded detail. Amongst the pebbles are numerous pebbles of Fars
limestone, measuring up to 1 foot across. Traced S.E.’wards the lower boundary swings round
M w rdS f ^ W f St ?n d the 1 , zon j eapparentIy becomes reduced to the size of the Zindanah ridge, and
. . of this, to still smaller dimensions. There appears, therefore, to be great lateral variation in
th!s zone, asm fact in all other zones of the Red Clay and Sandstone Series, a condition typical
rvf fU U r! a u? ■ rP? S i ' u ° f ^, e ^'^ n( ^ a J ia h ridge and forming the shallow synclinal rolling plain
e Dasht-i-Patahi are brown clays which I have called phase or zone “e”; they contain a
ew s ringeis o grave . one of these zones can be taken as a definite chronological division;
they are more of the nature of phases which dovetail with one another, and are somewhat difficult
to show on a map.
A^vmm is difficult to distinguish from the massive brown clays of zones “c ” or “e”, when
either of the latter is nearly horizontal.
STRUCTURE.
. ,fi“ S ; lrea ls clos “, t0 on S'n °f the folding movement and shews greater disturbance, than
become o bobtf 6 ' e , ' j ' lntlci ' n e, beneath which the petroleum primarily collected,
became a tightly compressed overfolded isocline similar to others already described The Fars
outcrop must have been very narrow, and ' ridged up ’ in the curious way noticed in many
neighbouring anticlines, the dip rapidly steepening as the core of the fold was approached. This

File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [‎101v] (217/522)

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File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [‎101v] (217/522)

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