Mineralogy and Paleontology of the Quaternary Sediments in Karmat Ali at Basrah, Southern Iraq

Abstract

The study was carried out on one borehole in Basrah city to describe their texture, mineralogy and fauna contents. The boundary between fluvial recent sediments and the Hammar Formation is hard to determine because both sediments are terrigenous; the present study tries to detect the transitional phase between fluvial and marine environments. The vertical variations in mineralogy and texture of sediments provide an indicator of environmental conversion in the Quaternary period. Quartz is dominated at shallow depth intervals. Thereafter, its abruptly decreases in their abundance after 20 m depth; while the opposite was the case for calcite content, where it increases with the decrease of quartz. halite and gypsum are absent at 3 to 13 m, but they appear at 17 m. Clayey silt exists at 1 to 21 m, and silty sand at 23 to 35 m. Paleontology is enhanced the sedimentological evidence and marked that the Hammar marine transgression started at depths 35 and 30 m with typical sediments at 30 to 27 m; marine regression is restricted at 27-17 m, whereas the fluvial Holocene period is marked at 17 m depth.

Physio-Chemical Properties of Tidal Flats Sediments in Iraqi Coastline, Northwest of Arabian Gulf

“…Al-Khuzaie 53 (2E), 2020: 107-116 give the coastal sediments their textural, and the main characteristics of the coastal sediment's precipitates (Pickrill, 1986;Al-Jaberi and Mahdi, 2020).…”

An Insight to the Sedimentological Developments of Quaternary Detritus Ring Fluvial Network, Altun Kupri Paleolake, NE IRAQ

“…The Quaternary deposits of Iraq have been studied in general for soil investigation, hydrology, geomorphology, engineering geology, and archeology purpose. The river terraces and alluvial fan stages of the Mesopotamian zone have been studied by many authors like Aqrawi (2001), Al-Kaaby et al (2020) and Al-Jaberi and Mahdi (2020). Also, the physical properties of Quaternary sediments of Erbil plain were studied by Bapeer et al (2010) for engineering purposes.…”