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Mesopotamia: the Tigris—Euphrates delta and its Holocene Hammar fauna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

W. A. Macfadyen
Affiliation:
Hope's Grove, Tenterden, Kent.
C. Vita-Finzi
Affiliation:
University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

Summary

In 1957, Hudson, Eames & Wilkins proposed the name of Hammar Formation for a series of sands and silts below the surface alluvium of the Mesopotamian Plains near Basrah, Iraq, which yielded a marine molluscan fauna of Holocene age. This paper shows that deposits yielding a very similar molluscan fauna are present at shallow depths at Amarah and Qurmat Ali, and lists the numerous foraminifera recovered from these deposits. Marine or brackish water conditions are thus shown to have prevailed in recent times over a distance of at least 250 km NW of the present head of the Persian Gulf.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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