A scientific study at University of Basrah examines the petrographic analysis and stratigraphic evolution of the Shiranish Formation in the Late Cretaceous

A scientific study at University of Basrah examines the petrographic analysis and stratigraphic evolution of the Shiranish Formation in the Late Cretaceous

A scientific study at University of Basrah prepared by Dr. Muhannad Hamid Al-Jaberi, researcher Naasa Hassan Suwadi, and Dr. Hamid Al-Sultan, a lecturer at University of Babylon, entitled (Petrographic analysis and stratigraphic evolution of the Shiranish Formation in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in the Merkasor area, northern Iraq).

The study, which was published in the Iraqi Geological Journal classified within Scopus Q3 containers, showed that a petrographic analysis and examination of rock layers were conducted to understand the sequence and stratigraphic evolution of the Shiranish Formation in the Merkasor area within Erbil Governorate, section (Lilok), northern Iraq.

The study included dividing the formation into three asymmetric sedimentary sequences, and the variation in the sequence of the studied area indicates the relationship between sea level and the change in carbonate production. These analyses explained the sedimentary environment and the basic aspect of the stratigraphic analysis.

The results of the study concluded that the depositional environments of the formation in this region were summarized in four environments: the slope environment, the slope edge environment, the deep shelf environment, and the deep sea environment or the cratonic deep basin, and that the stratigraphic development of the Shiranish Formation on the unconformity surface of the formation, which separates it from the lower Bakhma Formation, and that the sedimentary stratigraphic sequence links the formation in Iraq with other areas in the Arabian Plate.

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