1 - Mahmood, Ali Mustafa; 2 - Al-Juboury, Ali Ismail

1 - Geology Department, Mosul University, Iraq
2 - Research Center for Dams and Water Resources, Mosul University, Iraq, E-mail: aliajubory@yahoo.com 

The study deals with lithofacies description of the Paleocene to Lower Eocene Kolosh Formation from north Iraq. The Formation occurs in a broad belt, oriented approximately northwest-southeast, somewhat following the Zagros Mountains front. It consists mostly of clastic rocks of dark grey to black shale, green sandstones, marlstones, and rare conglomerates alternating with thin sandy limestone beds. Based on field and petrographic characteristics the following main facies could be recognized; classic turbidite facies, massive sandstone facies, pebbly sandstone facies, clast-supported conglomerate facies, matrix-supported conglomerate facies, and planktonic foraminiferal wackstone microfacies. Sedimentary environment is deduced to be a turbiditic environment formed by high velocity and high density currents in their upper part which is represented by thick coarse sandy and pebbly conglomerate, whereas, in the lower part, the low velocity and density currents caused the deposition offine shale and pelagic and hemi-pelagic lime sediments. Facies analysis also revealed shallowing-upward submarine fan sedimentation with the following sub­environments; upper fan, midfan, outer fan, and basin plain environments.

Keywords: Paleocene elastics, Northern Iraq, Facies analysis