Geological Field Trips

Overview

Between Baghdad and Sulaymaniyah the road crosses, in a few hours, the whole succession of the Zagros foreland: the Pliocene conglomerates and Miocene red beds of the Hamrin and Chamchamal foothills, the Eocene limestone ridge of Darbandi Bazian that marks the edge of the High Folded Zone, and the Cretaceous limestones and flysch of the Azmir–Goizha anticline above the city. It is one of the best transects of a fold-and-thrust belt in the region.

The page, its figures and the field companion are kept on the phone after the first visit, so the guide works in the mountains without a network; only the background map tiles need a connection.

What you enter · What you get

How it works in the field

Method and equations

Accuracy and error limits

• Stop positions from the published studies are within tens of metres; those marked approximate may be one to a few kilometres from the best outcrop. Formation names and ages follow the studies cited; ages of some units in the Sulaymaniyah area are still debated, and the fossils listed are those reported or typical for each formation, not a guarantee of what will be found.
• What is not covered: road conditions, access permissions and security, which change; private land, oil and dam installations; and the exact best outcrop at each stop.
• To reduce the error: check each stop on the geological map of the Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah quadrangles, ask local geologists or the universities of Sulaimani and Kirkuk about access, record your own position and photographs at each outcrop with the field companion, and correct the guide from what you see.

Who uses it

Standards and references

1. Jassim, S.Z. & Goff, J.C. (eds.) (2006). Geology of Iraq. Dolin, Prague and Moravian Museum, Brno.
2. Sissakian, V.K., Abdul Jab’bar, M.F., Al-Ansari, N. & Knutsson, S. (2015). Neotectonic movements in Darbandi Bazian area, southwest of Sulaimaniyah city, NE Iraq. Iraqi Bulletin of Geology and Mining.
3. Karim, K.H. et al. (2016). Surface analysis and critical review of the Darbandikhan (Khanaqin) fault, Kurdistan Region, Northeast Iraq.
4. Lineament analysis of Sulaimani master plan area, Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Journal of Zankoy Sulaimani, Special Issue GeoKurdistan II (2016).
5. Stratigraphic analysis of Azmir–Goizha anticline by nannofossils (Kurdistan Geology).
6. Lateral growth of Qara Dagh anticline, south of Sulaimaniyah city, NE Iraq: a structural–geomorphological study.
7. Wikipedia: Baba Gurgur; Darbandikhan Dam; Adhaim Dam; Hemrin Dam; Chamchamal (coordinates).
8. Global Energy Monitor: Mansuriyah gas field (coordinates).