University of Zakho ‫زانکۆیا زاخۆ‬

College of Engineering ‫کولیژا ئەندازیاری‬

Petroleum Engineering Dep ‫پشکا پەترۆل‬
3rd Stage ‫قۆناغا دووێ‬

Field trip
Report

Supervisor:
Mr. Nazar
Student’s name: Zaeem Khalat Ilyas
Group: 1

Date: 31 October
Location: Gali- Duhok

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 List of contnets

Aim of the trip

Introduction

About the trip

Objectives of the trip

Equipment

Bekhma formation

Shiranish formation

Kolosh formation

Gercus formation

Bekhma formation (other limb)

Pila spi formation

Table 1

Table 2

Faults

Joints

Conclusion

Refrences
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Aim of the trip:

Aim of the trip was to get familiar the lithology of some

geological formations in several areas in Duhok, and to measure
the dip angle, strike angle, dip direction, strike direction, and.. etc
of those formations. Also, the aim was to depend on some basic
geometry tools to measure the mentioned measurements above
such as compasses, GPS, satellite images analysis, and some
stereo net projections.

Introduction
Formation
A formation or geological formation is the fundamental unit of
lithostratigraphy. A formation consists of a certain amount of rock
strata that have a comparable lithology, facies or other similar
properties. ... The concept of formally defined layers or strata is
central to the geologic discipline of stratigraphy.

The divisions of the history of the Earth were the formations

described and put in chronological order by the geologists and
stratigraphers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Rock formations are
formed by sedimentary deposition in environments which may
persist for hundreds of millions of years.

The formations which are going to be talked about in this report

are local formation from Kurdistan mountains in Duhok, we were
lucky enough to see those formations in real life and were able to
test the touch of them with our colleagues and great teachers Mr
Nazar and Dr.Ramadan.
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About the field trip

In October 31 on Sunday, we went to a Physical Geology field trip in

Gali-Duhok in order to know some local Formations and see them in close
and know some important information about those formations such as
rock type, Age, Constituents and etc.... and also to we were able to
measure their dip angles, strike angle, and their directions. Most
importantly Mr. Nazar explained how these formations were formed and
what did they go through until they formed these shapes, also Mr. Nazar
talked about the age of theses formations and showed how the age of each
formation is different from the other formation. Bekhair Anticline is a part
of the high folded zone in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in Duhok
governorate, these are it’s formations:

The formations were:

Pila Spi formation
Gercus formation
Kolosh formation
Shiranish formation
Bekhme formation

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Objective of the field trip

1-To know properties of some local formations.

2-Know the difference between those formations.
3-

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measure the strike angle, dip angle and their directions.
4- be familiar with geometry tools and know how to use them.
5- know more about the geological formations of your country and area in
order to have geological information related to your Petroleum work.
Equipment:

Southern Limb of Bekhair anticline from the oldest Formation

Bekhma Formation to youngest Formation Pila Spi.

Bekhma Formation

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Lithology of Bekhma Formation at the southern limb contain limestone,
yellow to white (milky) in color and they have fine grain size. some of its
parts was fractured Marl as well. Contact between Bekhma and shiranish
formation is sharp contact, this contact represent by hard ground of
limestone, organic structure (pelecipoda) is the evidence to know this is
hard ground.

Figure 2: Hard ground of limestone

Shiranish Formation

Thickness and Lithology of upper Shiranish Formation contain 2m of

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bedded limestone, white in color, highly jointed. 4m of marl, white to
brown in color, highly fractured. Finaly, 4m of limestone. The lower part
of Shiranish Formation contains 2m of marly limestone, white to grey in
color, fine grain size.15m are covered (road), T-junction near the Bajlor
village.

Figure 3: Marly limestone of shiranish Formation

Kolosh formation

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The lithology of this formation is mostly sandstone, green in color, and
have fine grain sizes. the sandstone might be dark in color it’s because the
area was once a deep marine and that’s why its color got black. Also, in
some parts there is siltstone which is grey in color present with some
shale.

Figure 4: Kolosh formation

Gercus Formation

The lithology of this formation is mudstone, it’s color is mostly red

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because of the FE2O3 this causes oxidization and it changes it’s color to
red. In this formation you might also find red shale and sandy clay with
red color as well.

Figure 5: Gercus formation

Bekhma formation (oldest)

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This is the oldest formation in the Spi Rais anticline, The lithology of
Bekhma Formation at the northern limb was hard limestone, milky to
brown in color. And also about 2m was covered in dolomitic limestone,
After 50m covered I saw hard limestone full of fossils this indicates the
contact was sharp between Bekhma and shiranish Formation.

Figure 6: Bekhma formation.

Pila Spi formation: ( youngest formation)

it’s the youngest formation in the area, the formation was deposted in a
shallow lagoon. Fossils were abundant and indicate late Eocene age.

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Dip and strike readings of beds in southern limb of Spi Rais anticline- Shiranish formation
GPS readings:
Location name and date: 31 October, Duhok Shiranish
Time : 11 am
Lithology: limestone
Geologic age: Late Eocene
Dip and strike of beds
Dip of beds Strike of beds

40 300

40 286

43 283

41 287

40 290

41 286

40 296

42 289

41 290

40 289

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Dip and strike readings of beds in northern limb of Spi Rais anticline- Shiranish formation
GPS readings:
Location name and date: 31 October, Duhok- Bajilor
Time : 11:30 am
Lithology: marly limestone
Geologic age: Late Eocene
Dip and strike of beds
Dip of beds Strike of beds

19 89

23 72

22 78

19 86

22 75

20 83

20 85

22 76

20 82

22 80

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 Faults and Joints

Faults: Geological breaks develop within rocks during forces applied on

them, this break splits and shifts
the rock into two blocks, these two blocks move past each other. The
major or maximum force that causes these breaks called sigma one (ϭ1),
or called the maximum principle stress. (Reference: Mr. Nazar Handout for structural
geology)

In the Field we saw many types of faults, such as strike-slip faults, normal
faults and etc. this is a picture of one of the Normal faults that we saw in
the Spi Rais anticlines.

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 Figure of Normal Fault
Joints: Geological breaks develop within rocks during forces applied on
them, this break splits and separates the rock into two blocks, these blocks
split away from each other without vertical or horizontal movement.
The force responsible for this joint called sigma one (ϭ1), or called the
maximum principal stress. (Reference: Mr Nazar Handout for structural geology)

In the field we got to see many Joints as well, and the teacher explained
the reason of why these joints are formed in certain and different ways,
one of the examples of joints that we saw was in the southern Shiranish,
the following picture is a real picture of the joint that I took during the
field trip.

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 Figure of Joints

Conclusion:

In this trip we got introduced to five types of formations from the Spi rais
anticline, which were: Pila spi, bekhma, gercus, shiranish, Kolosh
formations.
Each of the, had their own lithology and they had their own properties as
well.
also we concluded that
Bekhair anticline is cylindrical and the southern limb is steeper than the
northern limb. Bekhair anticline contains formations belong to Cretaceous
(Bekhme & Shiranish) which make the Spi Rais anticline and formations
belong to Triassic (Kolosh, Khurmala, Gercus, Avana and Pilaspi).

The first stage of formation of this anticline begun in Cretaceous with

geodynamic inversion from extension to compression which led to
compressional tectonic environment, the second stage started in Eocene
when Arabian plate sank beneath Turkish plate and the system changed
from trough to collision.

and lastly we concluded that Lithology of each Formation indicates that

each of them deposited in a different environment.

References
Jassim, S. Z., and Goff J.C., (2006). Geology of Iraq. Published by Dolin, pargue and Musem, Brno Czech
Republic, 2006. 337p

Mr. Nazar handout about the formations.

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