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Quaternary Deposits of Northern Libya — Lithostratigraphy and Correlation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

J. M. Anketell
J. M. Anketell*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Manchester
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Extract

In recent years basic regional geological mapping of northern Libya by the Industrial Research Centre, Tripoli, together with the UNESCO Libyan Valleys Survey of eastern Tripolitania and the work of the author and Dr S. M. Ghellali in the Jifarah Plain and Jabal Nafusah, have greatly added to our knowledge of Quaternary deposits in the region. This work is described and evaluated against the background of earlier studies. The succession of major depositional, soil forming and erosional events which characterise the fluvio-aeolian deposits of the Jifarah Formation can be recognised in, and thus used to subdivide, laterally equivalent aeolianite, fangravel and wadi gravel deposits in the Jifarah Plain. Comparisons of this succession with others from throughout the region indicate that the events are of regional significance and that the Jifarah sequence provides a sound framework for lithostratigraphic correlation and a basis for facies analysis and chronostratigraphic studies.

This review is largely limited to the northern margins of Libya north of the 30th parallel (Fig. 1). It is convenient to subdivide the zone into several regions. These are:

(a) The Jifarah Plain and foothills of the Jabal Nafusah.

(b) The Hammada Al Hamra Plateau and major valleys of eastern Tripolitania.

(c) The coastal region from Misratah to Ajdabiyah.

(d) Cyrenaica from Soluq to Al Bardia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 20 , January 1989 , pp. 1 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 1989

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