Hydrochemistry of Rain Water and Atmospheric Pollution in Baghdad,Iraq

The atmospheric pollution in Baghdad was investigated by using rainwater as a media for monitoring of pollution and also compared with the atmosphere pollution at reference stations of Al-Sulaimaniya in north of Iraq and Al-Rutbah in Western Desert of Iraq. Rainwater sampling carried out at period extended from Nov.2007 to April 2008.Thirty five samples of rainwater were collected at seven monitoring

Geochemistry of Termite Hills as a Tool for Geochemical Exploration of Glass Sand in the Iraqi Western Desert

Sand glass deposits was located in the mid of the Western Desert of Iraq. It is situated within Rutba Formation (Ceno-manian). Ancient traditional mining method is still used in exploitation the unconsolidated white glass sand from glass sand quarry. The overburden thickness ranges from 2 to 4 m in average. Termite hills were observed around the glass sand quarry extending far from the quarry area. Termites could burrows down and penetrate the sand glass bringing it up to the surface. The depth of penetration reaches more than 35 m. The field observation of the white color of termite hills which are built up by sand glass gave a good indicator for the hidden subsurface deposit and it appears to be a surface signature for finding glass sand directly under the termite hills. The scattered white hills of glass sand on the surface with high content of SiO2, concordant Zr/Hf and Th/U ratios and heavy mineral distribution in both of quarry and termite hills provide a strong evidence of that those termite hills could be an effective tool for exploring subsurface hidden glass sand up to 35 m depth.

Fluid Inclusions Usage for Assessing Oil Migration in Duhok, North Iraq

Studies of primary and secondary fluid inclusions were done on epigenetic barite samples collected from carbonates of Lower part of Sarmord Formation (Lower Cretaceous) and Aqra-Bekhme Formations (Upper Cretaceous) in Duhok, north Iraq. Lead isotopes composition in galena which associated barite that contained fluid inclusions helped the identification two events of fluid inclusions. These fluid inclusions contain brine water and hydrocarbons. Primary and secondary fluid inclusions in barite as well as lead isotopes composition in galena helped the interpretation of oil migration history and the pathway of oil migration. Ages of galena are syngronous with the events of oil and water trapping as inclusions within barite, and hence the interpreted galena generation could be assigned to the fluid inclusions age. Accordingly, the events are two phases of early and late generations that correspond to 120 m.y. and 30 m.y. respectively. Correlation with 10 PetroMod basin modeling of the generated oil from the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous Formations fitted with the event of early galena generation, whereas the oil migration started before 70 m.y. and continued to 30 m.y. ago. Palynomorphs study confirmed that the oil in source rocks is similar with the migrated oil.