NEW DATA ON THE PALEOZOIC COMPLEX OF THE PLATFORM COVER OF SYRIA

During joint Soviet-Syrian work to compile a tectonic map of Syria on a scale of 1:500,000, a number of previously unknown structural featur es of the Paleozoic complex of the sedimentary cover were found that p ermit two important conclusions. First, it was found that the main str uctural rearrangement within the Syrian part of the Arabian plate occu rred at the Paleozoic-Mesozoic boundary, since at precisely this time a sharp change in tectonic movements occurred, which caused a change i n the overall distribution of sediments. Second, it was found that on the site of the modern basement uplift of Rutba, there was an extensiv e and deep (> 6 km) compensated sedimentary basin in the Paleozoic, wh ich opened to the southeast toward the east Arabian pericratonic troug h. This fact greatly enhances the prospects in the southeastern region s of Syria (in particular, the Syrian desert) in the search for Paleoz oic oil and gas deposits.