Clay Mineral of The Surface Sediments of The North West Part of The Arabian Gulf, Iraq

19-02-2014

S.M. Al-Dabbagh* and B. Albadran**

* Geology department, University of Mosul, Iraq.

**Geology department, University of Basrah, Iraq.

Abstract

Twenty surface sediment samples were collected from the southern entrance of Khor Abdallah from Jan. to June 1990, in order to study the clay mineral distribution and their sources. The following clay minerals were distinguished; smectite, chlorite, palygorskite, illite and kaolinite. No neoformation phenomenon was remarked in the clay minerals which are transported with the sediment load of the Shatt Al-Arab River, except the palygorskite which may be considered as an unstable stage in the transport conditions. The study also deals with the probable sources of palygorskite in these sediments. The sources could be: the direct deposition, the diagenesis and the dust fallouts. The later may be more important than the rest.

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