The System of Clastic Rocks in Iraq and Its Relation to Tectonic Environments

The Department of Earth Sciences, in collaboration with the Continuing Education Unit, organized a lecture titled “The System of Clastic Rocks in Iraq and Its Relation to Tectonic Environments.” The lecture aimed to elucidate the relationship between the formation of clastic rocks in terms of their types, composition, and the influence of tectonic environments on their formation. It also aimed to define the system of clastic rocks in Iraq, the extent of their spread, the process of their formation, and the extent of their influence by tectonic environments resulting from the fragmentation of pre-existing rocks through mechanical weathering factors such as water flow or the formation of ice. The fragmented rocks are then transported to a new location to form new rocks, usually carried by wind or surface water flow.The lecture presented by Dr. Hassan Kattouf included a review of three rock sections of the Injana Formation in selected areas of northern Iraq, and the presence of three main factors that control the distribution of minerals and rock fragments in the sand rocks, which reflect the types of source rocks and the degree of maturity of the sand rocks, indicating that mineralogical studies and factorial analysis of the sand rocks indicated that the source rocks of the Injana Formation are acidic igneous rocks subjected to a metamorphism process of varying intensity accompanied by sedimentary rocks (carbonate and clastic), and that the texture of the sand rocks of the formation is immature, explaining that the with the size of sediment particles ranging from microscopic clay particles to large-sized rocks, where the smallest particles are called clay, followed by silt, then sand, while particles larger than 2 mm are called gravel.