Construction of Regional Seismic Section Along Central Part of Iraq and its Geological Importance

Abstract

A regional seismic section was constructed from fourteen local seismic lines from different surveys crossing the central part of Iraq from west to east. The seismic lines’ surveys were performed during the period 1974–1990. The length of the regional seismic section is 662.5 km. The considered seismic lines are unified to the sea level datum. The quality of seismic lines is relatively poor in the western part of the regional seismic section, but it is of good quality in the central and eastern parts. Seven reflectors were identified along the regional seismic section, corresponding to ages from the Ordovician to the Miocene. The formations are Khabour (Mid-Ordovician), Akkas (Upper Silurian), Kurra Chine (Upper Triassic), Najmah (Upper Jurassic), Mauddud (Mid-Cretaceous), Shiranish (Upper Cretaceous) and Fatha (Lower Fars) (Mid-Miocene). The Two-way times for these seismic reflectors from the west to the east are 1691 – 4000 ms, 750-4000 ms, 0-4000 ms, 208-4000 ms, 206 -3310 ms, 205 -2700 ms, and 216-2500 ms for the seven formations; starting from the oldest formation (Khabour Formation to the youngest one (Fath Formation ), respectively. The top depth values of the considered formations were defined from west to east for each formation (0-4.189) km, (0.456-4.880) km, (0.708-5.936) km, (0.802-8.5) km, (0-8.977) km, (0.5-9) km, and (1.8-9) km from the oldest to the youngest formation, respectively. The horizon generally dips towards the east. Two sedimentary basins were identified, the first in the western part of Iraq within the Paleozoic formation, while the eastern basin was within the Cenozoic and Mesozoic formations. These two basins are separated by an uplift at the central part of the regional seismic section. This uplift region was confirmed by gravity and magnetic high anomaly. Many faults were detected along the regional seismic profile. Most of these faults extend from the deeper to the shallower formations.