File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [‎135r] (284/522)

(b) There is a small seepage on the river bank about i mile to the E.-S.-E. of the town.
ie seepage is very small and very little bitumen was rising when examined, otherwise
™ CS ie :wo J us t described. It is accompanied by a small spring of sulphur
{c) Ain Laid —In the plain about 1 l/3 miles S.-S.-E. of the town. It is a pit in limestone
ou ~ ^ y aid s m diameter, full of very clear water, which has deposited sulphur on
t e walls, ovei which grows a reddish vegetable slime. The well is surrounded by
salt deposits. \ ery little bitumen is brought up by this spring.
(d) Ain Laleif. About two miles nearly south of Hit is another pit in limestone, full of clear
watei and depositing sulphur. Large quantities 'of lumps and strings of bitumen are
brought up and form thick layers round the edge of the hole. Fragments of con-
cretionary limestone are scattered over the surface of the ground in the immediate
neighbourhood of this spring.
(e) Ain Marj Is about 5^ miles N.-W. of Hit. It is an asphalt lake 200 yards in diameter
approx., whose edges are sufficiently consolidated to bear the weight of a man. In
the centre gas and lumps of bitumen still rise with a strong sulphurous smell. The
ground round this lake is covered with a salt deposit. The seepage appears to be
in the base of the Lower Pars. The asphalt bands were not seen here.
(f) Ain al Taal —Is on the left bank of the river, 3^ miles, a little west of north of the town
of Hit. The seepage is situated in the base of the Lower Ears, and is a pit kbout
3-4 yards in diameter full of salty water smelling of sulphur. The whole surface when
examined was covered with similar lumps of bitumen as are brought up elsewhere.
(g) Ain Mamurah. —Lies beyond Jabal Mamurah, about miles W.-S.-W. of Hit. We did
not visit this seepage, but from enquiries we understand it to resemble Ain Lateif.
(h) The Kubaisah wells, though situated some 12-13 miles from Hit and not bringing up
bitumen, are most conveniently described in this place. They ‘consist of a series of
deep holes in the Euphrates Limestone, at least 150 feet below the base of the Lower
Pars.
We examined Ain an Nakhl, which was full of an intensely blue, very clear water depositing
sulphur. The water had only a very slight taste of salt, but salt had been deposited round the
well. We saw no traces of bitumen in the water.
When troops were billeted at Kubaisah, it was found that horses could drink the water, but
that it was unfit for human use. The water is used extensively in cultivation. Many other springs
of the same nature exist in the neighbourhood and the stream beds leading from them are heavily
coated with salt.
(b) Naphata.
There is a small seepage at Ain an Nafat about h mile from the left bank of the river. The
seepage is situated in a pit about 12 feet deep dug in the alluvium and paved with rock. No water
was visible in the pit when examined and the oil appears to seep out in small quantities from the
alluvium. It is caught in tins and carried to a small hole in the ground, where it is carefully
skimmed as water separates off from it. In this manner approximately 2 gallons are obtained daily,
viscious, The oil is stored and used for camel mange.
Groskopf reporting on the area in 1919 says : “ there collects on the surface a very
nearly colourless petroleum, which is considered the best of all Alesopotamia .
The present oil is a rather fluid, brown oil of specific gravity approx. 950. Very little gas
is present. No cause for the present seepage has been found, and no oil-bearing beds are known
in the upper part of the Lower Pars. The position of this seepage is shown on the map.
(cj Aboujir; Aswasil, Jabhah.
Owing to political reasons we did not visit these seepages. We are mfoimed that at Aboujn
very extensive lakes of asphalt occur, which appeal to be of the natuie of the Hit seepages. Othei
geologists have estimated the area covered by the asphalt deposits to be only slightly less than
that of Trinidad.
Jabhah and Aswasil, to the N.-W. of Aboujir, have seepages of the Hit type.
The position of these seepages is shown on the geneial geological map.
(5) GEOLOGICAL. STRUCTURE.
(a) Hit-Fallujah.
(1) Hit.
The whole of the Hit area is underlain by Euphrates Limestone and appears to be situated on
■the N.-E. dipping limb of an anticline or monocline, which runs in an N.-W.—S.-E. direction. We
found the same^dip at Kubaisah 12-13 miles to the west of Hit, so that the crest of the fold is
still further to the west. The observed dip of the N.-E. limb is very low, not more than 1-4 degree,
and is rather obscured by minor waves. Ihe whole fold pitches gently to the S.-E.
At Hit the oil-bearing Lower Pars beds, which cover a large area to the south and west,
have been eroded down tcT the underlying, almost flat Euphrates Limestone platform, and have
been left as flat-topped outliers of the main outcrop. On the slopes of these isolated hills, as
well as in the main outcrop to the south and on the other side of the river, can be seen two distinct
bands of asphalt, possibly all that is left of the original oil-bearing horizons.

File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [‎135r] (284/522)

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File 1450/1919 ‘Mesopotamia & Kurdistan: Geological Reports on’ [‎135r] (284/522)

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