ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Geochemistry
Provenance and Tectonic Setting of the Lower Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Shales from the North-eastern Iraq: Mineralogical and Geochemical Approaches
Provisionally accepted
Nagham Omar1*
Tom McCann1
Ali I. Al-Juboury2Mohammed A. Al-Haj3
Arkan O. Sharazwri4
Armstrong-Altrin John S.5- 1University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
- 2Al-Kitab University Medical Technical College, Kirkuk, Iraq
- 3University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
- 4Soran University, Soran, Iraq
- 5Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
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The Lower Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous successions from the Ranya and Warte areas in the northeastern Iraq were investigated to determine the provenance and tectonic setting. Fifty-seven shale samples from six Jurassic formations, i.e., Sarki, Sehkaniyan, Sargelu, Naokelekan, Barsarin, and Chia Gara, were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Mineralogical results showed that the shales comprise mainly calcite, dolomite and quartz, with traces of feldspar, illite/mica, kaolinite and chlorite. Geochemically, a range of elemental ratios, along with light rare earth elements (LREE)/heavy rare earth elements (HREE), revealed that felsic and intermediate igneous rocks constituted the predominant source rocks, whilst Eu/Eu* anomalies indicated a felsic provenance. The obtained mineralogical and geochemical data suggested that the sediments were derived from the igneous rocks in the Sanandaj–Sirjan zone of Iran. Additionally, the tectonic discrimination diagrams revealed a passive margin setting, which is consistent with the tectonic province of the Ranya and Warte shale successions of northeastern Iraq.
Keywords: Iraq, Jurassic, provenance, shale, Tectonic setting
Received: 30 Sep 2025; Accepted: 16 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Omar, McCann, Al-Juboury, Al-Haj, Sharazwri and John S.. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nagham Omar
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