Paleocene Stratigraphy in Aqra and Bekhme Areas, Northern Iraq

Abstract

The Paleocene Kolosh Formation of Iraq is comprised of flysch deposit of sandstones, marls, shales, intraformational conglomerates and thin beds of arenaceous limestone, deposited in subduction trench, parallel to the suture zone formed by closing of the southern Neotethyan ocean and finally collision between the Arabian, Anatolian and Iranian plates, extended North West-South East, from Mushorah (NW) to Kashti (SW) (van Bellen et al., 1950 and Jassim and Buday, 2006) (Figure 1). Kolosh Formation is coeval with several other formations in other parts of Iraq. These formations are diachronous and define according to lithology. In north Iraq, it is pass to or inter-tongue with algal reef limestone (Sinjar Formation) and reef back reef deposit (Khurmala Formation) (van Bellen et al., 1959), moreover, a different set of paleocene formations are used in central, western and southern Iraq: Aaliji, Akashat and Umm Er Radhumma formations. The complex lithostratigraphy relationships between these units are not suitable for correlation and best resolved by biostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy.