'THE GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF DHUFAR PROVINCE, MUSCAT AND OMAN' [‎21r] (31/96)

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up of industrial enterprise in this part of the Sultanate under his rule.
It was thus evident that my suggestion to make an ‘ Audit ’ of the
mineral resources was in complete agreement with what had been in
the Sultan’s mind when he asked for a geological survey of Dhufar.
I was further informed that a number of specimens of minerals and
rocks had been collected from various places in Dhufar and that this
collection was at my disposal for examination. I took them back
with me to the British Overseas Airways Corporation transit hostel
where I was, staying. On my way, both to and from the Palace, I
noted the Miliolitic limestone at Salalah. These Pliocene to
Pleistocene strata (of believed Eolian origin like those I had studied in
Kathiawar in Oklia, and previously very fully described by J. W.
Evans in his paper ‘ Mechanically-formed Limestones from Junagarh
(Kathiawar) and other Localities’ in th.e Quarterly Journal, Geological
Society, London, Volume 56, pages 559 to 589, 1900 (and first noted
by H. J. Carter nearly a century ago in his paper ‘On Foraminifera in
a fossilized state in Arabia, Sindh, Kutch and Kahttyawar’ in 1849)
are of considerable interest. The beds, in strata 12 to 18 inches
thick, are from 12 to 20 feet thick and dip gently, 5 degrees or, say,
1 in 12 , seawards (south). They are used as building stone and
furnish excellent material (freestone) for this purpose. It is the
stone found in all the ancient ruins, El Balad, etc. in the Jurbaid or
plain of Dhufar along the coast.
32. I spent the next morning, the 4th February, studying the
various specimens of rocks and minerals which the Sultan had taken
the trouble to have collected. These were, without exception, from
the Murbat area and from the metamorphic and gneissic rocks of the
flat country along the southern side and at the foot of the Jabal
Samhan scarp. They are as follows:—
(i) Weathered biotite (black mica) in pieces 2 inches across.
(ii) Hornblende (amphibolite) schist.
(iii) Garnetiferous granulite with small pink garnets and
quartz.
(iv) Quartz with hornblende and biotite (but largely quartz).
(v) Quartz granulite evidently from banded gneisses.
(vi) Amphibolite schist resembling (ii) above.
(vii) Chloritic schist with mica ?
(viii) Argillaceous sandstone of sedimentary origin.
(ix) Shale with carbonaceous laminae adhering; and
(x) Lead ore, largely galena with some carbonate attached.
Specimens (i) to (vii) clearly belong to the gneisses and schists,
items (viii) and (ix) to much newer strata underlying the limestone
along the southern side of the Samhan range. Sample (x) of about
10 pounds indicates a mineral lode in some limestone rock, but the
exact locality of this or the other specimens was not recorded in