QARAH TAPPAH AND TABLE MOUNTAIN. 65 



both sides of it. This gravel, which is Pleistocene or early Recent 

 in age, is not everywhere horizontal, but has been folded into an 

 anticline by a Recent continuation of the folding movement which 

 had established the anticline in the Tertiary beds. The folding 

 of the gravel has taken place naturally along the same axis 

 as the older anticline, and we have as it were an anticline of 

 Pleistocene or Recent Gravels capping or embracing a sharper 

 anticline of Tertiary sandstones (see section). The maximum dips in 

 the limbs of the two folds are : — 



Anticline of Tertiary beds — 



S.W. flank vertical. 



N.E. „ 20°. 



Anticline of post-Tertiary beds — 



S.W. flank 22°. 



N E ^° 



The south-westerly dip in the gravel is fairly distinct, and the beds 

 can be seen arching over towards the crest. The north-easterly 

 dip is only apparent in the general steady slope of the gravel plateau 

 level. Since the deposition of the gravel, therefore, the south- 

 western limb of the anticline of Tertiaries has been steepened 22° 

 and the north-eastern limb 3° or 4°, in other words the fold has been 

 tightened or compressed to the extent of about 25°. 



Possibilities of Oil— Natural occurrences of petroleum or sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen in the area under report, were neither noticed 

 nor heard of. The anticline is intact and not too acutely folded, 

 and there is an inconspicuous surface indication of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen and petroleum in the anticline adjoining to the north- 

 east, the Jabal Gilabat ; this indication is 28 miles distant from 

 Table Mountain, but not more than 12 miles from the axis of 

 the Jabal Hamrin anticline. The promising oil locality of Naft 

 Khana, north of Mandali, is not more than 20 miles north-east 

 of Table Mountain. It is true that the presence of subterranean 

 oil-bearing strata is usually shown at the surface by seepages, but 

 in this case any petroliferous beds would be below a great depth 

 of rocks, the bulk of which would consist of clays belonging to 

 zone " a " of the Kurd series. No fault was seen up which oil 

 might seep, but the presence of selenite at the surface along 

 the crestal area seems to indicate that the clays have been cracked 

 transversely or at any rate form a cap not sufficiently impervious to 

 prevent the upward percolation of gypseous water from the Fars 



