Page 434 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes to Chapter One

Ra’s al Khaimah 650 sq. miles 1,700 sq. km
Fujairah 450 sq. miles 1,100 sq. km
Umm al Qaiwain 300 sq. miles 770 sq. km
'Ajman 100 sq. miles 260 sq. km

See Fenelon, K.G., TheTrucial Stales: A Brief Economic Survey, 2nd rev.
edn., Beirut, 1969, p. 136.
9 For an analysis of coastal and inland sabkhahs in the UAE, sec
Kinsman, David J.J. and Robert K. Park, “Studies in Recent Sediment-
ology and Early Diagenesis, Trucial Coast, Arabian Gulf" in a paper for
the Second Regional Technical Symposium, Society of Petroleum
Engineering of AIME, Dhahran, 1968; Mr Kinsman’s research, which
resulted in a PhD thesis of London University in 1964, was followed up
by a team of sedimentologists from Zurich University, headed by Mr T.
Schneider, during several periods of field work in 1971ff.
10 The groundwater is drawn either from the dunes or from the upper
parts of the underlying rock formation. Water can be found at a depth of
one metre in some of the hollows between dunes, while the water table
might be as far as 25 metres from the surface of a sand dune. The only
sources of re-charge are rainfall and dew. Where the sand is of great
thickness the water is sweeter than nearer the older rock formation. The
latter is extremely rich in water-soluble minerals. Water with 0-1,000
parts per million (ppm) dissolved minerals is considered fresh; most
wells in the western and southern areas of Abu Dhabi have over
l.OOOppm. The brackish water can be used for domestic purposes and
animal watering, but it is not suitable for irrigation because of its high
salinity.
11 The dunes of the LTwa do not directly rise from the underlying rock
formation which is partly exposed in the Bainunah plateau to the north.
The floors of some of the hollows are formed by compacted older dunes
which developed a gypsoferous character through cementation and are
also called "inland sabkhah”.
12 "In 1906 a valuable pearl was found off the extreme end of Musandam
Island. The Shaikh of Bahrain claimed that all pearls found in those
waters belong to him or should pass through his hands. The Shaikh of
Qatar claimed that the pearl was found by one of his followers and it
should be disposed through him. A considerable quarrel developed, the
result being that the Shaikh of Qatar was murdered, some important
additions were made to our geographical knowledge of Trucial Oman,
and the publication of Mr Lorimer’s book was delayed. The man who
actually found the pearl claimed that he came from the village of Shah in
Liwah, and as no one had ever heard of such places, Colonel P.Z. Cox,
the then Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, in his endeavour to settle
this dispute, discovered that this man belonged to neither Qatar nor

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