Hawar Fm
Type Locality and Naming
Q.P.C. Well Kharaib No. 1, lat. 25°27’09” N, long. 51°11’56” E, elevation 41 m (136 ft), completed 29.6.1953, between drilled depths 1109 and 1125 m (3637 and 3689 ft). W. Sugden, 1953 (unpublished report).
Synonym:
Reference Section:
Lithology and Thickness
Shale and marl, blue-grey. Its thickness is 16 m (52 ft)
Relationships and Distribution
Lower contact
Kharaib Fm; contact conformable, placed at boundary between limestone, below, and shales or marls, above.
Upper contact
Shu’aiba Fm; contact conformable; limestones of the Shu’aiba rest upon shales of the Hawar Fm
Regional extent
Occurs throughout onshore Qatar and can be traced eastwards through offshore Qatar where it changes progressively into a characteristic limestone unit composed of foraminiferal, pellet packstones and wackestones and argillaceous lime mudstones, often highly glauconitic and dense. This limestone can be traced eastwards through Abu Dhabi and probably extends into Oman. Everywhere it intervenes between the Shu’aiba and Kharaib Formations. The shale is present in Bahrain and forms the highest unit of the Biyadh Formation in eastern areas of Saudi Arabia.
GeoJSON
Fossils
Choffatella decipiens Schlumberger
Age
Depositional setting
Additional Information
Justification for assigning formation rank to this relatively thin unit is its value over a wide area as a distinctive rock unit which intervenes between the well-defined Shu’aiba and Kharaib Formations.
The Hawar Formation was, for many years, considered to be the upper member of a heterogeneous formation which also included the Kharaib and Ratawi Formations as defined in this Lexicon. The name Ratawi was assigned to the complete sequence which was considered to be a distant equivalent of the Zubair / Ratawi clastics complex of south Iraq.