HILLS BETWEEN TUZ KHCRMATU AND KLFRI. gj 



in the Jabal Xasaz ten or eleven miles to the north-east, for which 

 reason the name " Xasaz zone " is proposed for it [see p. 58). 

 Above the conglomerate forming the range just described, come 

 thick masses of light brown clay with a few thin conglomerates 

 and sandstones. This zone— zone " e "— is indistinguishable from 

 zone " c ' : except by its position. It forms slightly undulating 

 plains. 



Pleistocene. —On the south-eastern side of the Kifri gorge is a 

 horizontal conglomerate lying unconformably upon the contorted 

 Fars rocks, well up above the alluvial plain. It has been classed 

 as Pleistocene and is probably equivalent to that seen at Fathah. 



Structure. 



As it is desirable that anyone anxious to prospect this area for 

 oil, should form his own .conclusions as precisely as the evidence 

 admits, as to the risks he has to face in searching for undisturbed 

 oil-pools below, the structure of the anticline will be discussed sec- 

 tion by section from north-west to south-east. 



The Fars beds first make their appearance from beneath the 

 alluvium north of Albu Sabah (see pi. 8) ; they are here of very small 

 thickness and practically vertical, so that the fold is steep and 

 tight from the commencement of the outcrop. Due east of Albu 

 Sabah the anticline is seen to rise towards the south-east in two 

 or three rapid jerks. Traced in the same direction the general north- 

 easterly dip sinks to 45°, 30° and 20° in places, being steeper 

 along the north-eastern than along the south-western Fars boundary. 

 This, we shall see, is a very constant character all the way along the 

 outcrop, viz., steep or steeply reversed dips along the north-eastern 

 boundary, and gentle still more reversed dips along the south-western 

 boundary— reversed in the opposite direction of course from those in 

 the north-eastern limb. In other words both limbs of the anticline 

 tend to become or do become, reversed, the south-western limb much 

 more than the north-eastern. North of Tuz Khurmatu, sandstones 

 belonging to zone " b " of the Kurd series are seen in contact with 

 the Fars along its south-western boundary, dipping at about 20° in a 

 north-eastern direction ; this boundary is, therefore, a reversed fault. 

 Evidence of this fold-fault is again seen west of Kifri where the con- 

 glomeratic zone " d " is found within a niile of the Fars outcrop, 

 dipping gently. North of Tuz Khurmatu the fold seems to be 

 something of the nature i f section 1 on plate 8. 



