'File 35/64 Mineral deposits in Dhofar' [‎27v] (65/126)

vertical or with high westerly foliation dips. There appear to be m
alternations of mica schist and quartz granulite as well as 'sills' of uj
pink to red medium grained granite. It is a worn-down gneissic plain, of
but quite distinct from the metamorphic rock in the Jabal Ali hills Js
immediately north of Murbat. •. st:
49. The view northwards from the Sultan's guest house at
Murbat, over the Jabal Ali in the near distance, has the southern dc
scarp of the Jabal Samhan as the most conspicuous feature. It is S£
quite clear that the bedded limestones which make up perhaps the sh
upper 1,200 to 1,500 feet of the 3,600-foot scarps lie unconformably di
on the reddish coloured strata below. The limestone bands have a or
distinct tilt to the west, while the reddish coloured strata appear to cc
be horizontal and the upper layers are gradually cut away westwards. of
These reddish coloured beds are probably 600 feet thick and include T]
sandstones and flaggy beds, and are underlaid by khaki to greenish m
coloured shales and earthy, warve-like sandstones which together si*
are quite 1,000 feet. I went about 4 miles along the road back to 7(
Takah and at the first marked rise in the road encountered the bi
greenish-buff shales (which resemble those of the Talchirs in being U
splintery, but are not 'needle shales' which are the type rocks of the w
Talchirs). Overlying these shales are massive slab-like limestones. al
The strata appear to dip westwards but there is a definite south in
component in this inclination, at least in the limestone as it runs in
down to the first headland of Murbat bay (coming away from tv
Murbat). Next I turned north to climb the face of the Jabal Samhan tt
from a point bearing 130 degrees to Murbat and 145 degrees to the se
cape south-west of Murbat. The view south-east looks across the al
bay, and the compass bearings are practically true as there is very at
little magnetic variation The angular difference between true (or geographical) north and magnetic north. along this part of the coast of Arabia. lo
50. I climbed to the shoulder which forms the head of a
large valley opening south-east and about 1,000 feet high, all the K
way up on limestones which slope south-west. In the scarp facing oi
the valley mentioned, the khaki-coloured shales are seen high up and in
continuing round into the scarp of the main Jabal Samhan. This lii
established the fact that both the limestones and the lower, dis- p;
cordant, argillaceous strata occur in an anticlinal at the valley and 5
that this arched fold has a general tilt westwards. The samples are cc
of the overlying limestone of the lithographic A lithograph is an image reproduced from a printing plate whose image areas attract ink and non-image areas repel it. type but I could not oi
find any fossils. H. J. Carter noted such ' lithographic A lithograph is an image reproduced from a printing plate whose image areas attract ink and non-image areas repel it. limestones' se
here a century ago, but he has also, in his revised paper of 1856 ai
(published in 'Geological Papers on Western India' in 1857), recorded w
several fossils, foraminifera, gasteropods, etc., from the limestones d(
of the Murbat scarp, which make the basal limestones of Cretaceous tt
(Senonian to Cenomanian) age and the approximate equivalent of tt
the Pab sandstones and associated strata just south of Gadoni, th
28 miles north-west of Karachi. The impression I had gained from sc
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