The study was made in the region of the NNE-SSW trending Mrah anticline.
This anticline is one of the main anticlines belonging to the Northern part of the
Palmyride fold belt, lying amid Syria, in the northern Arabian plate. The lithostratigraphic
column of the study area consists of the marine sediments of
upper Cretaceous and lower Paleogene age.
The field study involved the description and measurement of the brittle
deformations in ٢٥ sites, which are distributed stratigraphically and
geographically in the different parts of the Mrah anticline. Data processing and
field observations led to a reconstruction of the principal stresses, which
affected the region, and their evolution relative to the main folding phase
(Neogene-Quaternary).
Considering the importance of the Palmyrian folding zone as one of the
promising zones, and the scientific and practical importance of the isolation of
the matrix formation in any sedimentary basin or in any part of it, and that the
sedimentary ro
cks, which have sufficient quantity and quality of organic
materials cannot become matrixes until they undergo convnient conditions of
temperature, pressure and geological time, the aim of this work is to study the
effect of these factors on the sedimentary rocks of the investigated ones and to
isolate the formations, which may be matrixes.
According to the results of this study,the formations which may play the
main role as matrix are these which have Middle Triassic age or Paleozoicin
the northern Palmyrian subzone, and older than Permian age in the southern
Palmyrian subzone .