Mineral Composition and Provenance of Al-Chabbab Stream Sediments, Wasit, Southeastern Iraq

Abstract

A mineralogical study was carried out on the sediments of Al-Chabbab stream, one of the seasonal tributaries of the Tigris River, southeast of Wasit, Iraq. This study includes the sediments of the Tigris River sited before and after the mouth of the Al-Chabbab stream. Light and heavy minerals are determined by using polarized microscope and X-Ray Diffraction technique. The light minerals are composed of quartz, rock fragments, and feldspar, which are the prevailing compositions in all samples. The quantity of monocrystalline quartz in the Tigris River was more than Al- Chabbab stream, which refered to the supplied of felsic sours rocks sediments to the Tigris River more than the sediments of Al-Chabbab stream. The average value of minerological maturity index and ZTR index of Al-Chabbab stream, Tigris and Al-Chabbab inflow samples indicates that clasts generally are sub-mature. The Tigris River clasts have high mineralogical maturity index, which refers to the long transportation. Heavy mineral accumulation of the recent sediments from Al-Chabbab inflow and the Tigris River is composed of opaque and transparent minerals including epidotes; pyroxenes; amphiboles (hornblende and glaucophane); zircon; garnet; tourmaline; rutile; kyanite; staurolite; flaky minerals (muscovite; biotite and chlorite) and celestite (glaucophane and celestite are absent in the sediment of Tigris River). Based on the mineralogical signatures, the light and heavy minerals reflect metamorphic, mafic and felsic igneous rocks, of the active margin of the unstable shelf, in addition to the carbonate, evaporite and mud rocks that could be sourced from the Euphrates, Fatha and Injana formations.