'THE GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF DHUFAR PROVINCE, MUSCAT AND OMAN' [‎23v] (36/96)

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limestone, also with many nummulites, I secured fragments which next r
have a distinct salty taste. Below this again, well down the section stony
of these horizontal beds of limestone there is a particularly friable climbe
bed, even powdery, with loose small nummulites fallen out, strongly to yot
impregnated with salt. It is difficult to say if the salt is residual in from
the marine deposit, but so it appeared to me. It is the gradual Hills i
removal of the salt that seems to give the rock its granular structure stony
and powdery nature (by loss of cohesion). The salt in the water of difficu
the Hanun pool below is thus clearly accounted for. beds £
41. The surface of the open, stony plain at Hanun is probably or so
no more than 2,000 feet above sea-level and therefore 1,200 feet or 4
so below the watershed near Kazmeem. The top bed of the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. is A1 Qi
a khaki-coloured limestone, 3 feet thick perhaps, but hard and so dips \
overhangs the friable chalk bed (the ‘chalk’ with flints included). and si
It also contains some veins of gypsum (and I found loose fragments It is
of vein salt). On the surface of the plain there is scattered a slight
considerable quantity of flint and chert fragments, as well as anoth
blackened fragments of sandstone and limestone, together with the b:
pieces of fibrous gypsum, loose crystals of worn calcite and round- is at 1
sectioned, geode-like crystalline quartz. The commonest material the p
is flint and chert with now and then a little chalcedonic silica. This the a
debris continues on the plain for miles, and appears more conspicuous witho
near the outliers of conical hills (some are flat-topped), which are so bath
much a feature of the scenery. And so we travelled eastwards to cave
Thenut, a wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. similar to that of Hanun, but there is here only a scour
great hollow below the dry waterfall and just below the cave.. All the tribui
water has gone down into the limestone and left great blocks of stone Arab',
in the hollow where the pool should be. However, at the base of those
the west (left) cliff, near a little show of green vegetation and a little photc
downstream, there is a small spring hidden in the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. side. This Then
water was not only cold but quite the freshest I had tasted since whicl
leaving the Garzaz spring. The beds are flat-lying bedded limestones we ai
(as at Hamm). ^
42. While examining the cave and beds at Thenut, the men upwa
(with Sheik Sail bin Garwah) from Haloof Dhar came bringing climt
specimens of fibrous gypsum, fibrous rock salt, fine white ‘chalk’, bran<
and what looks like pure kaolin. We then continued east-south-east we h
across similar country and crossed another wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. , the Zaq, with a grapl
scoured limestone floor (as evidence of strong flood action). It was and ;
dry, of course, but a little downstream below a dry waterfall there is to cz
a pool of slightly salt water (which my party like). It is about nortl
2 ^ miles on to the next big wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. , Ha’rat. There is no pool under into
the dry fall, and no cave, as all has collapsed and large blocks of Na’S
limestone cover the bed, and it is possible water could be found by Al Q
digging 50 feet down. There is no water there and Ha’rat is dry, with
but cold at night, in early February. We continued south-eastward all a