The Mesopotamian Paleontology researches..

SPREADING OF LIVING AND FOSSILS FORAMINIFERA

AS INDICATOR OF POLLUTION, NORTH WEST ARABIAN GULF

Rasha Abdul-Sattar Al-Khuzaee*

 Dept. geology, college of sience, Basrah University

Abstract

   Twenty sedimentary samples have been chosen from mouth of Shatt Al-Arab River to study  its paleontological  and biological contents. This study referred to the distribution of large  number of foraminifera in water of mouth bed of the river. These forams are related to 21 families, 40 genera and 54 species.

   Results showed that the possibility to utilize some foraminifera species as indicators on reasons of pollution and its spreading. Also the study shows that there are three sources of pollution which affecting the environments of study area. These are oil spill, domestic effluent and dumping pollution.

   The study area where divided into two biofacies. First one is the ERF facies which is characterized by predominance of agglutineous foraminifera, extending from beach area toward the slope. The second is the EMF facies which is characterized by predominance of porcellaneous  foraminifera and the genus Elphidium as well as other less common genera, extending  from the slope area towards the deep zone.

 *Rasha Abdul-Sattar Al-Khuzaee

 Email: rashaal_ali@yahoo.com