الملف ١٤٥٠\١٩١٩ "بلاد الرافدين وكردستان: تقارير جيولوجية عنها" [ظ‎‎١‎١‎٥] (٥٢٢/٢٤٥)

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Alluvium and Gravel.
The hills to the south-west of Kifri are covered with gravel and the solid is concealed in many
places. Recent Alluvium occurs in the valley at the foot of the hills and in river valleys.
(3) INDICATIONS OF OIL, SEEPAGES, etc.
Kifri lies in a zone of seepages e. g. Naft Kanah, Palkana, Tuz Khurmatu and Kirkuk and at
Kifri there are some indications of the presence of oil.
(a) A bituminous deposit, which has been known for a long time as “ Kifri Coal”. Porro and
Kissling state that in 1905 250 tons were mined and taken to Baghdad for fuel. During the war it
was worked by the Turks for fuel for river steamers and railway, but no figure of the output is
available. Mr. J. Brown has reported very fully on it so only a brief description is required here.
About 2i miles E.S.E. of Kifri, about 800-900 feet above the base of the Upper Pars there is an
outcrop of black coal-like substance with glassy lustre and conchoidal fracture. In the pits it occurs
as veins, lenticles, and along bedding planes. It is in considerable quantity over an area of some
600 yards and then tails off in each direction. The mode of occurrence and the properties of the
material show that it is a form of solid bitumen, usually called Manjak ’. In one of the pits there is
evidence of a small fault or fracture and the strike of the beds is locally altered from the general
N.W.-S.E. direction. Many veins of gypsum are associated with it.
(b) A small seepage occurs about 8-9 miles E.S.E. of Kifri in the hills to the north-east of the
gypsum outcrop. In a pit which has been dug in the marl and sandstone of the Bakhtiari Series, not
far from the junction with the Upper Pars, a little oil is seen floating on water and there is a small
evolution of gas and sulphur. The oil is used by Arabs, but the quantity is very small.
(4) GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
The Kifri Dagh and its continuations is one of the N.W.-S.E. ranges which conform to the
general structure of the country. The Jabal Hamrin, 25 miles to the south-west, consists of beds
of the Upper Pars and Bakhtiari; further to the north-east is the Jabal Gilabat in which the same
beds occur, but the conglomeratic stage of the Bakhtiari is represented. In the Kifri Dagh the
Lower Pars beds crop out and form a steep escarpment with the beds dipping to N.E., followed
by the whole of the Upper Pars and then by a great thickness of Bakhtiari.
The whole appears to be part of a huge anticlinal or monoclinal fold which is plunging to the
S E. as evidenced by the narrowing of the outcrop in that direction and its final disappemance
under the Upper Pars at a point some 6 to 7 miles south-east of Kifri. The extension of the ridge
toward Kirkuk will be examined later.
To the south-west of the range extends an alluvial plain some two miles wide from which low
hills ride. These hills are capped with gravel, but in places the solid is exposed—beds of the
Bakhtiari Series with a dip to the N.E. of 10 to 15 degrees.
Dr. Pascoe in his Report on the Talishan Anticline mentions these beds and states that they
are part of an anticlinal fold on the N.E. flank of which the conglomeratic beds appear, and that
the fold pitches to the S.E. as far as Talishan. The S.W. limb of this anticline is concealed by
alluvium ,
The structure can best be understood by Section A-B accompanying this report. In the allu
vial plain at the foot of the hillls there must be a fault with a downthrow to the south-west, which
has caused the Lower and Upper Pars beds to have been completely concealed beneath the
Bakhtiari. We are unable to say anything about the nature of this fault at present ; it is indicated
on the section as a normal fault, but it is possible that it is a thrust fault. Examination of country
to the north-east will probably provide the necessary data to settle this.
A diagrammatic section has been drawn through the Jabal Hamrin, Jabal Gilabat, and Kifi
hills to illustrate the general structure Dr Pascoe’s report on the Jabal Gilabat has been used for
this purpose.
(5) PROSPECTS OF THE DISTRICT.
(a) Presence of of/.—That the underlying beds contained oil at one time is clear from the
presence of deposits of solid bitumen in the Upper Pars ; there is also a small seepage of oil. e
very productive seepages of Palkana and Tuz Khurmatu are on the strike of the same outcrop ot
Lower Pars. It can therefore be assumed that the Lower Pars of this district is oil-bearing.
(b) Cab Rock.—About 1,000 feet of the Lower Pars has been removed by erosion. The thick
ness of the formation is probably in the neighbourhood of 2,500 feet, so that other conditions being
right there should be sufficient cap rock.
(c) Geological structure. —The behaviour of the fault which cuts off one limb of the anticline or
monocline is of primary importance. Its effect may have been to have caused the remova o e
bulk of the Lower Pars beds in this district.
The prospects may be summed up as very uncertain ; as there are several places where similar
structure occurs, it may be necessary to make a test of one of them, as oil might be he up in arge
quantities on the upthrow side of one of these faults.
SUMMARY.
Kifri is about 80 miles to the N.N.W. of Baghdad.
(1) GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.
The following formations are present, starting with the oldest :—
Lower Pars.—About 1,000 feet exposed beds of the usual type.
Uffer Pars. —Thickness about 2,500 feet. s,
Bakhtiari. —A great thickness present.