| Geological Unit | Age | Symbol | Description | Thickness | Fossils | Special Features |
| JURASSIC |
| Kserouan Limestone | Lias ? | j4 | Crystalline, grey with brownish tint in colour, highly fissured dolomitic LIMESTONE with white veins of quartz. Variable grain size from fine to coarse depending on the degree of diagenesis. Chemically deposited. Saccaroidal texture. High content of algae showing drop-like patches on fracture surfaces. Some silicified corals. | 1000 m
Type section Kserouan |
Corals and Algae | Jeita cave.
By weathering forms sand of dolomite crystals on the mountain side along Mashnaqa - Qartaba road.
Lowest and oldest formation in Lebanon |
| Bhannes Volcanics or Equivalent | Dogger ? | j5 | Volcanics: Black BASALT or pillow
lava, not vesicular.
Equivalent: Bluish clastic LIMESTONE, weathers to creamish, usually intercalated with soft bluish shale (0.5 to > 1 m thick) |
20-30 m
80-85 m Type section Bhannes
|
echinoderms | |
| Bikfaya Limestone | j6 | Finely crystalline, massive, cliffy LIMESTONE including brown chert nodules, trace to abundant. Smooth fresh fracture. Chemically deposited. | 60-65 m
Type section Bikfaya |
Limestone full of chert nodules
on the road side,
Baabdat - Arbanieh. |
||
| Salima Limestone | Malm ? | j7 | Composed of:
Chocolate brown SHALE and bluish MARL, in parts intercalated with thick oolitic LIMESTONE bed. The marl weathers to a creamish, ochre colour |
0 to few meters to 150 m
Type section Salima |
Crinoids |
| CRETACEOUS |
| Chouf Sandstone (Gré s de Base) | Neocomian-Barremian? | c1 | Varicoloured, cross bedded SANDSTONE with interbeds of shale. The lower part consists of sandy clayey LIMESTONE beds in the Jieta area. Contains heavy minerals. Colour depends upon percentage of hematite and presence of volcanics giving purplish colour. Sand is sometimes white and used for making glass (Safa). Contains coal seams and traces of brittle amber. | 300 m
Type section Jezzine |
Old mines at Arsoun used by the
French or the Turks.
Formation 200 m thick near Beirut, thinning northwards. Approx. 10 m thick in north Lebanon |
|
| Abey Formation | Lower Aptian | c2a1 | Clastic: mixture of clay, sand and calcareous material in varying proportions forming clay, sandy clay, marl, marly limestone etc. The calcareous material may be slightly to moderately indurated. Where marl prevails its fresh colour is bluish, weathering to creamish brown. | 125 m
Type section Abey |
Kfarhim caves, rare stylolites | |
| Mdeirej Limestone, or Jezzine Cliff, or Couches de Planches | Lower Aptian | c2a2 | Karstic, massive LIMESTONE forming a prominent cliff which is often used as a marker bed. Marine depositional environment. Transition with the Abey Formation consists of three layers of green clay intercalating limestone. | 45 m
Type section Mdeirej |
Stylolites | |
| Hammana Formation | Upper Aptian
Albian |
c2b
c3 |
MARL intercalated with marly LIMESTONE
with thick layers of SAND on top. Layers of ferro-oolitic limestone sometimes
overlie the sand.
Green MARL (containing glauconite) intercalated with thick layers of marly LIMESTONE forming cliffs 3 - 4 m in height. May contain some thin sand layers in the lower part of the formation. |
20 m
10 m
150 m Type section Hammana |
Rich in orbitolina
Large moluscs, (gastropods, bivalves and rare cephalopodes) |
Ferro-oolitic limestone seen North of Jezzine Glauconite grains are abundant in Fayyadieh before the Military School. |
| Sannine Limestone | Cenomanian | c4a | Dolomitic LIMESTONE | Within this formation, geodes of different sizes, filled or voided, | 300 m | Ammonites and fish fossils. Fish fossils found | Qadisha, Afqa and Rachmaiya caves. | |
| c4b | Bluish MARL and SHALE | containing crystals of quartz. Also chert nodules and bands from | 80-100 m | particularly at Maameltain, Hjoula and Hakel | ||||
| c4c | LIMESTONE and dolomitic LIMESTONE | white to brown in colour ranging in width from mm to several cm. Limestone is highly karstified | 300 m
Type section Sannine |
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| Maameltain or Ghazir Limestone | Turonian | c5 | Distinguished by fossils otherwise joined with C4c, except in Barkline and between Tabarja and Halat where bluish shaley (laminated) LIMESTONE is found. | 200 m
Type section Ghazir |
Hippurites | |||
| Chekka Marl | Maastrichtian/Paleocene and Eocene | c6 | Cretaceous and lower Tertiary sediments indistinguishable lithologically. Stiff bluish plastic MARL with glauconite, interbedded with chalky marly LIMESTONE and nodules of black chert. | 400 m Chekka thinning to 150 m
elsewhere
Type section Chekka |
Rich in foraminifera | Weathering is sometimes rusty, concoidal fracture | ||
| TERTIARY |
| Lower Eocene | e2a | Bluish MARL, weathers to grey marl | not more than
100 m |
Rich in foraminifera | Best locality near Babliyeh and Kawkaba | |
| Middle Eocene | e2b | Massive LIMESTONE with concretions of chert, or chert nodules and bands. | 200 m | Nummulites | Best locality near Babliyeh | |
| Miocene | m2a | Continental:conglomerate and sand,
especially in the Zahle area, with thick mud on top.
Marine: Greenish Marl, weathers to grey, in parts interbedded with marly LIMESTONE |
50 m to
> 100 m
150 m |
Feraminifera | In Achrafieh, 500 m of marl, because it is resting on the Senonian (C6) marl. | |
| Middle Miocene | m2b | Reefic LIMESTONE, massive | 150 m | Corals, foraminifera | Tunnels at Dbayeh and old tunnel at Chekka | |
| Pliocene | p1, p | Conglomerate, sandstone and sandy marine marl, bluish in colour. | 300-
400 m |
Best locality, Wadi Arqa in the north |
| QUATERNARY |
| Pleistocene/Recent | q | Loose eolian sands and cement sands. Alluvium. Residual Soil including terra rosa | Best locality, Khalde and Beir Hassan |