'THE GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF DHUFAR PROVINCE, MUSCAT AND OMAN' [‎26v] (42/96)

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on a later page when dealing with the larger problem of oil in
Dhufar. Before leaving Murbat I had made further efforts in regard
to certain samples of carbonaceous shale which had been received
in the Geological Survey of India 40 years ago, but no specimen was
produced although the Sultan had shown me a few fragments at
Salalah. The locality has probably been forgotten, but I feel certain
that such material will be found below the limestones perhaps near
the eastern end of the Jabal Samhan.
53. I left Murbat on the afternoon of the 13th February
accompanied by Mr. Pradhan Singh, the State Civil Engineer, and
Messrs. M. Clapham and W. M. Llewellyn of British Overseas Airways
Corporation. I now had an opportunity to watch the rock exposures,
and it was soon evident that the limestones of the Jabal Samhan
were inclined gently westward and also dipped in a southerly direction
(as would be the case in a tilted anticlinal). We went up the Darbat
wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. to the Dahaq or wall of tufa. It is quite 500 feet high, and
there is a similar though smaller ‘ abyss ’ to the west where the Darbat
had probably overflowed when dammed by the main deposit. We
next climbed the western side and visited the ‘lake’, a long narrow
sheet of water probably a mile and a half long and 300 to 400 feet
across, and curving into the valley. On the way back we could
see the Khor Rori sheet of water shining in the sun. It is not now
as large as 2 miles long, but it is a good sized lake and could perhaps
be improved, but the water is saline. Next I noticed the Miliolite at
Takah resting on the older limestones, and so we continued to
Hamran and Mahmulah and then towards Dahariz and El Balad
and Hafa and thus to Salalah and the aerodrome. There are
exposures of Miliolite limestone almost all along the coast, but
outcrops of the limestones of the Jabal Samhan are not conspicuous,
and indeed after Takah it would be difficult to distinguish those of
the Jabal Qara from those of the Jabal Samhan without close
mapping and the evidence of fossils.
54. On the 14th February Mr. Pradhan Singh and I visited
Risut and he pointed out the position of the salt pans between Augad
or Okad and Risut on the edge of the bay. Next we went up the
valley west-north-west from Risut. It discharges into the marsh
at the west of the bay. We struck the Nagar Ghaiz wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. about
5 miles from Risut at a place where there is a 30-foot cliff of con
glomerate of recent origin (showing that the streams are in a reju
venated condition now). After going 4 miles up the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. we
enter narrow valleys and here is the first water. Just round the
bend there are hard greenish trap-like sandstones and phyllites
(slatey shales) trending north-north-west with a very high dip
(75 degrees) to the west. Veins of fibrous gypsum 6 inches wide
occur along the bedding of the phyllites, and a fault striking east
wards with an almost vertical shear is seen at the same exposure.