STRATIGRAPHY AND TRILOBITE FAUNAS FROM THE CAMBRIAN BURJ FORMATION 



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Fig. 3 Generalised map of the Safi area, southern Dead Sea, showing the 

 outcrop of the Burj Formation (stippled), and the localities mentioned in 

 the text. The grid is Palestine National Grid (PNG); geological 

 boundaries after Powell ( 1988). 



with laterally accreted channel-fill, probably of meandering-river or 

 tidal-flat origin. Wave ripples, small-scale bidirectional cross-bed- 

 ding, intra-clasts, burrows and thin dolomite laminae in the Tayan 

 Siltstone suggest a marine incursion over a low-lying alluvial plain, 

 and deposition in a shallow subtidal to intertidal environment. The 

 succeeding carbonates (Numayri Dolomite) mark the maximum 

 phase of the transgression. Oncolites, oolites, disarticulated 

 brachiopod shell lenses, low-angle cross-bedding with shallow scours 

 in the purer carbonates, and ripple cross-lamination in the siliciclastic- 

 rich carbonates indicate deposition in a warm, shallow, carbonate 

 lagoon, with periodic storm-events redistributing ooliths, bioclasts 

 and quartz sand. Domal, laterally linked stromatolites indicate 

 intertidal to supratidal conditions near the top of the unit. The 

 Hanneh Siltstone represents the regressive phase marked by an 

 influx of siliciclastic sediment, derived from the south, into the 

 shallow carbonate platform. Sedimentary structures and trace fossils 

 similar to these in the Tayan Member suggest deposition in a tidally 

 dominated shoreline. Subsequently, coarse-grained, trough cross- 

 bedded sand was deposited, by braided to meandering rivers, which 

 prograded over the wedge of marine sediments. In central and south 

 Jordan, continental fluvial deposition continued through the Umm 

 Ishrin Formation into the Disi Formation (Selley 1972). Trace fossils 

 in thin marine intercalations suggest that the Disi Formation is of 

 early Ordovician age (Seilacher 1970). 



At Wadi Zarqa Ma' in the exposed carbonates show an upward- 

 coarsening (shoaling) trend from shallow-water ripple 

 cross-laminated siltstones and sandy carbonates to oolitic shelly 

 packstones and cross-bedded (trilobite-rich) grainstone deposited in 

 the shallow subtidal zone. Bi-directional dune sandstones with an 

 erosive base, and bioturbated ripple cross-laminated siltstones above, 

 suggest an influx of sand from prograding rivers along the shallow, 

 tidally influenced coastal margin. The upper carbonate bed marks a 

 brief transgressive pulse and was deposited in a shallow subtidal to 



Fig. 4 Correlation of the Ram Group, including the Burj Formation, along the margin of the Dead Sea - Gulf of Aqaba Rift. Inset map shows the location 

 of the sections. HS = Hanneh Siltstone, KS = Kusheiba Sandstone, ND = Numayri Dolomite, TS = Tayan Siltstone (after Powell, 1989). 



