The principal aim of this season's investigations was to obtain contextual information on the geological, geo-morphological and hydrological processes operating within the environs of El Merj, to complement existing archaeological evidence. Provisional conclusions show that broad similarities exist between profiles obtained at two points on the site suggesting that the central area of the site has undergone a similar depositional history. The site seems to have been subject to regular inundation by flood events, occurring 1–2 times per year, which deposited significant quantities of silty-clay sediment eroded from terra rossa soils of the Jebel Akhdar. Less frequently, coarse-grained gravel and cobble deposits were introduced to the profiles, indicative of the effects of much rarer high magnitude floods.