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The study area of Wadi Hudaydun and its surroundings forms part of the 80 km long and NE trending Wadi Shueib Structure in northwestern Jordan. The area is predominated by the Late Cretaceous carbonates with minor bedded cherts and phosphorites of the Ajlun and Belqa Groups. A complex structural style is revealed during the measuring and mapping of the main structural elements. The major area's structures consist of two fold belts; Al Baqr - Hudaydun fold belt and Ath-Thughra fold belt intersected by a complex structural style of fault zones. These faulting systems are normal faults, striking WNW-ESE and N-E, while those trending NW-SE are of the thrusting type. Dextral and sinestral strike-slip faults are also recognized in the area. With the aid of fieldwork observations and the use of "Multiple Inverse Method Software Package", the main stress axes are obtained. The results of the current study suppose that most of the geological structures in the investigated area follow two tectonic events. The major one is associated with the Late Cretaceous stress pattern, which is presumed to have occurred during the formation of the Shueib Structure, and produced the NNE-SSW folds of Al Baqr-Hudaydun belt. Its maximum and minimum compressive axes (s1 and s3) are trending towards the WNW-ESE and NNE-SSW, respectively. The minor tectonic phase can be either correlated to a local stress or may even be attached to the primary stresses of the Dead Sea Fault (DSS). Its trend, probably swinging towards the N-S direction, has produced Ath-thughra fold belt. Two distinctive compressional structures are observed in the studied area as well; they are the fault-propagation fold and the strike-slip fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater wells in the Amman-Wadi Es Sir Aquifer (B2/A7) throughout Jordan are investigated for their arsenic (As) and element-by-element geochemical behavior. Groundwater wells are found to have total arsenic concentrations above the recommended levels designated by the Jordanian drinking water standard, the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, and the World Health Organization. Arsenic distribution in the aquifer is variable, but it is detected with a concentration of ≥10 ppb in 87 samples out of the analyzed 150 groundwater samples, with a maximum concentration of 173 ppb. Elevated As concentrations can be attributed to several mechanisms. One of these mechanisms is accounted for to the interaction between groundwater and the natural phosphorite deposits in the upper part of the aquifer and oil shale deposits overlying it. The high significant correlation between arsenic, phosphorus, and calcium concentrations in the analyzed groundwater samples suggest that these elements are derived from the same source. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy shows the association of As with the P and Ca in the phosphorite; pyrite is present in the oil shale samples, which were collected from the Muwaqqar formation overlying the aquifer. EDAX analysis shows that substantial As concentrations are present in phosphate and pyrite. This study suggests that the major mechanism responsible for releasing As from the aquifer material into the groundwater is a simple dissolution reaction. However, Piper and Durov diagrams, correlation coefficients, and factor analysis all suggest that water interaction with phosphate and oil shale deposits, sorption of heavy metals, and simple dissolution of iron oxyhydroxides are together the primary factors affecting the chemistry of the groundwater and responsible for the elevated As values in some wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-seven samples from Waqf as Suwwan structure in the southeastern desert of Jordan were analyzed for their petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry. All three types of analysis failed to show any evidence supporting the structure as an impact crater, but they cannot be used as an evidence discrediting the structure as an impact crater. This is because of the presence of shatter cones and rare shock metamorphic features. Shatter cones are well established in the Waqf as Suwwan structures and are accepted internationally as a criterion for impact craters. Shock metamorphic features reported in previous works are extremely rare and atypical. Planar features (PFs) were reported in one single quartz grain taken from a 30-m-thick Kurnub sandstone horizon. They are also reported from one single loose chert nodule, despite the extremely abundant bedded and loose chert within the structure. The PFs in the chert nodule are questioned because they are possibly due to diagenesis. More important is the complete absence of any type of breccias, lithic, melt, or suevitic and ejecta within and around the structure. The "deep erosion of the crater" used by advocates cannot stand for rigorous discussion on the amount of erosion in the desert environment in southeastern Jordan. Given the exact age of the cratering event is not yet known, and an approximate long-term rate of erosion of 1 m/Ma breccias and ejecta should be present in and/or around the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the sighting of the Mediterranean monk seal in Libya since 1972. Staff of the Marine Biology Research Center (MBRC) in Benghazi were alerted about the presence of dead creature along the coast of Cyrenaica. The carcass was identified as a female Mediterranean monk seal based on the external body measurements and examination of the reproductive organs. It states that the monk seal was the last confirmed sighting of the species that was reported by W. J. T. Norris.