Tectonic Study of Lineaments for Part of Zagros Belt, Northeast Iraq

Abstract

The study area situated in the western part of Zagros fold-thrust belt, north east (NE) Iraq. Google earth image for study area was used to build up lineaments map. Studying and processing of these lineaments revealed that there are two dominant directions of lineaments northeast-southwest (NE-SW) and northwest- southeast (NW-SE), compatible with the main regional stress direction and Zagros belt direction respectively. It was found that there is no significant change of lineaments density in different tectonic zones and there is no obvious effect of lithology on lineament density in the study area. Length rose diagrams showed an obvious increase in the value of NW-SE lineaments direction, starting from low folded zone toward NE, despite frequency rose diagrams of different tectonic zones showed no significant change of the main prevailing direction. It is found that some lineaments shifted or bended some folds or ridges in the study area. Field observations demonstrated that some lineaments of study area had field criteria of faults while they did not described in tectonic map.

Keywords

• Lineaments
• Zagros belt
• Arabian plate
• field criteria