Formation age

Type of rocks

Thickness (m)

Main hydraulic characteristics

General consideration

Surficial recent deposits

Recent gravels, sand and silt

Up to 30 m

Local aquifer when conditions allow

Irrelevant as a source of water

Upper Cretaceous-Tertiary

Bituminous Marl

200 - 300 m

Aquitard

Aquitards, confining layer

Campanian Maastrichtian

Silicified limestone overlain by beds of phosphatic chert

Around 70 m

Excellent aquifer

Good to excellent Aquifer

Turonian-Santonian

Massive sandy limestone

55 m

Good aquifer

Cenomanian

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

Around 300 m

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

In general, poorly developed aquifer with some good yields aquifer layers. On a regional scale it doesn’t form an aquiclude

Lower Cretaceous

Coarse, medium and fine-grained sandstone

160 - 200 m

Good aquifer

Good to excellent aquifer, S of Mujib directly overlie Silurian deposits

Triassic

Siltstone, sandstone calcareous sandstone

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

Poor to good

Gradually, in a N direction containing brackish water

Permian

Sandstone, siltstone, conglomerate

0 m N of Mujib-300 m in the NE

Good aquifer

Good aquifer containing fresh to brackish water

Silurian-Cambrian sandstone series

Mainly coarse, medium and coarse-grained sandstone

1300 - 1400 m

Excellent aquifer

Excellent aquifer