EFFECT OF SLIDE MASSES ON GROUND WATER OCCURRENCE IN SOME AREAS OF SHARAZOOR PLAIN /NE IRAQ

Baranan Mountain is about 200m higher than the surrounding Sharazoor plain, which is located at south and southwest of Sulaimaniya City, northeastern Iraq. Structurally the mountain is a homocline, along its scarp slope (slide scar) and for more than 20 km huge limestone blocks are slid possibly at Holocene, from the upper part of the scarp and many of them reached the Sharazoor plain. Some of the blocks are brecciated to masses of slide debris during sliding while others remained as intact blocks. Some of the blocks are weighted to be more than 800 million tones and commonly associated with existence of small springs. Field study showed that the blocks are underlain by impervious shale and marl and consequently about 20 springs in the area emerges at the frontal line of the masses in the contact between the masses and underlying impervious strata. Both the blocks and the masses have fissured and intergranular porosity respectively, which comprise shallow aquifers with highly variable discharge of the related springs ranging from 0.3-12 l/s. Chemical analysis of six water samples is carried out which, showed that the aquifer is limestone, reflecting the characteristic of Sinjar limestone Formation, and to some extent the underlying Kolosh Formation.