I 



14 PASCOE : GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIA. 



is usually a little north-east of the anticlinal crest, so that a location 

 on the former would allow for the slight asymmetry. There is a 

 graded road up to the crest of both ranges from the river, by which 

 a boiler and engine could be transported. Water is obtainable 

 just below the Hamrin location on the north-eastern side, probably 

 in sufficient quantity for a boiler in the wet season. At the Makhul 

 location it could be obtained from the river. 



It is perhaps premature to draw general conclusions, but the 

 similarity in conditions between this country and the oil regions of 

 India and Burma are worth pointing out. We have a petroliferous 

 series containing saline products and marine fossils, indicative of 

 a dessicated gulf, followed by a fluviatile deposit, the river having 

 in all probability replaced the gulf, just as we have in the Punjab, 

 Assam and Burma. The folds become steeper as we approach the 

 eastern margin of the gulf, i.e., the quarter from which the folding 

 movement proceeded. One is tempted to prophesy " boundary '* 

 faulting close to this eastern margin, either in the Lower Tertiaries or 

 along their base ; its presence would explain the earthquake shocks 

 which occasionally afflict Mesopotamia. 



December. 1918. 



REPORT No. 3.— THE PROSPECTS OF OBTAINING OIL IN THE 

 JABAL KHANUQAH SOUTH-EAST OF SHARQAT. 



Map.— 1 inch=l mile, PL 1. 



Introduction. 



The Jabal Khanuqah is a range of the same structure and com- 

 prising the same rocks as the Jabal Hamrin or Jabal Makhul ; 

 from the latter it is distant 3 to 6 miles to the north-east, the two 

 ranges being not quite parallel. It is a rock-wave of the same 

 movement which produced the Jabal Makhul, and, like this 

 range, consists of a simple regular anticline exposing a core of 

 Fars beds, succeeded by the Kurd series. The range is unpierced 

 except by three or four small streams at Qal'at-al-Bint, which 

 >-ave taken advantage of a pitch in the anticline and perhaps of the 



ntinuation of a fault, together with an acute reduction in the width 

 the range due to excessive erosion by the Tigris. The range 



mmences west of the Humr Plain below Qal'at-al-Bint in the 



