Formation age

Type of rocks

Thickness (m)

Main hydraulic characteristics

General consideration

Surficial recent deposits

Recent gravels, sand and silt, basalts

Up to 50

Local aquifer when conditions allow

Irrelevant as a source of water

Eocene

Chalk marl and chert

Up to 150

Appropriate local aquifer

Local water supply in Jafr area

Upper Cretaceous-Tertiary

Bituminous Marl

200 - 300

Aquitard

Aquitards, confining layer

Campanian Maastrichtian

Silicified limestone overlain by beds of phosphatic chert

ca. 70

Excellent aquifer

Good to excellent Aquifer

Turonian-Santonian

Massive sandy limestone

55

Good aquifer

Cenomanian

Alternating beds of limestone, dolomite, marly limestone, dolomitic limestone, sandstone, marl and some gypsum layers

ca. 300

Poor aquifer. In many areas springs issue from the limestone and dolomite beds

In general, poorly developed aquifer with some good yield aquifer layers. On a regional scale it allows water to vertically pass through

Lower Cretaceous

Coarse, medium and fine-grained sandstone

160 - 200

Good aquifer

Good to excellent aquifer, S of Mujib it directly overlies Silurian deposits

Triassic

Siltstone, sandstone calcareous sandstone

0 m N of Mujib, >400 m at the NE edge of the Dead Sea

Poor to good

Sediments start north of Mujib, containing brackish water

Permian

Sandstone, siltstone, conglomerate

0 m N of Mujib-300 m at the NE edge of the Dead Sea

Good aquifer

Good aquifer containing fresh to brackish water

Silurian-Cambrian sandstone series

Mainly coarse, medium and coarse-grained sandstone

1300 - 1400

Excellent aquifer

Excellent aquifer