Геология Ирака

Полный обзор геологии Ирака, включающий в себя разделы по тектоническому строению, истории геологического развития, сейсмичности, стратиграфии, магматизму, метаморфизму, гидрогеологии, нефтяным системам, твердым полезным ископаемым.

Iraq lies at the NE comer of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a land of contrasting geography with an arid desert in the west and the rugged mountains of the Taurus and Zagros in the NE, separated by the central fertile depression of Mesopotamia: long known as the cradle of civilization. This morphology facilitated early human migration and dispersion of knowledge between the East and West. Sumerian cities as old as 6000 years are a witness not only to a thriving early civilisation but also to the early industrial use of raw-materials.

In geological terms Iraq lies at the transition between the Arabian Shelf in the west and the intensely deformed Taurus and Zagros Suture Zones in the N and NE. The evolution of the Arabian Shelf has been influenced by the mobility of the Frecambrian basement and by tectonism along the Neo-Tethyan margin. The tectonic framework of Iraq has been affected by intracratonic transpressional and trans-extensional movements controlled by the interactions of stress along the plate margin with the Precambrian basement fabric and structural grain.

This book offers a new interpretation of Iraq's Precambrian basement by extrapolating the geology of the exposed Arabian Shield to the north and beneath the Phanerozoic cover of Iraq. A new hypothesis for the opening of a narrow Southern Neo-Tethys Ocean in Early Cretaceous time is proposed (using data from adjacent countries) to explain the geological evolution of the NE margin of the Arabian Plate. The tectonic framework, fabric and tectonostratigraphy of Iraq are discussed in the context of the tectonic history of the Arabian Plate.