Geological, Mineralogical and Geochemical Studies of Kolosh Formation, Dokan Area, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Abstract

The geology, mineralogy and geochemical of The Kolosh Formation in Dokan area, northern Iraq has been studied. The formation sequence includes gray and dark gray marl that alternate from clastic submarine sediments represented by turbid deposits resulted from the last stages of the collision movement between the continental plates. The geochemical study showed that the Kolosh Formation is mainly dominated by detrital sediments (Clay) with a dominance of kaolinite illite, and albite wıth low amounts of quartz. The analysis revealed that the Kolosh Formation is dominated by relatively marginal marine sedimentation where shelf bay facies was deposited with carbonate facies deposited as shallow marine. In contrast, SiO2 is strongly negatively correlated with CaO and MgO, this supports their derivation from terrigenous sources during the deposition of Kolosh sediments.