When the number of confirmed coronavirus disease cases rose in Iraq in the middle of February 2021, the Iraqi government performed a closure approach to constrain mobility and factory operations and enforce social distancing. In this research, the concentrations of air components (PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3)), which represent herein the degree of air quality index, were recorded, drawn and evaluated over central (Baghdad, the capital), northern (Kirkuk Province) and southern (Basra Province) Iraq before and during the closure. The experimental duration of this research was 6 months (from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021), which included four periods: pre-closure, first closure (total and partial), second closure (total and partial) and third closure (partial). Moreover, the impact of total closure and partial closure on the quality of the atmospheric layer over Iraq was evaluated and assessed by using Sentinel-5P satellite/Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument and Giovanni–Earthdata images. The results revealed that air pollutant concentrations dropped during the closure periods except at the end of the third closure period due to the lack of people’s commitment by breaking the closure strategy based on economic reasons. It was observed that the lockdown is one of the best solutions to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and that it significantly improved the air quality index, although it has several disadvantageous effects on the economic front of the country. Eventually, since people stay at their residences, the concentration of air pollutants becomes low and the air quality index becomes better.
Upper Cretaceous Oceanic Red Beds (CORBs) are pelagic sediment
deposits that deposited in the Upper Cretaceous basin, with widespread in
part of the world as well as in Iraq. This research investigates the deposition
of cyclic marl and marly limestone CORBs of six selected sections at the
active southern margin of the Tethys during the Late Campanian -
Maastrichtian with petrography, microfacies, and depositional environment.
As this study was not a consideration in the past, so decided to visit and
identify all exposure areas of the Upper Cretaceous period rocks are visited.
This study involved two fields touring reconnaissance extended from
Darbandikhan city in the east south to Shiranish Village in the west
The primary objective of the present research is to diagnose the most mportant imensions of quality of work life in a sample of individuals working in the Northern Gas Filling Company in Nynawa. The study sample consisted of 140 employees of the Northern Region Filling Company in even ,Through a questionnaire prepared for this purpose. The study concluded that there are five main factors that are considered to be measure of the quality of working life and are based on their importance: Empowerment, organizational health, internal work environment, motivation, development and training of workers. The study recommended that the organization should payattentio
... Show MoreThe Zubair Formation is the most significant sandstone reservoir in Iraq which deposited during the Barremian. The study area is located in the central part of Iraq at the Kifl oil field, in the northern part of the Mesopotamian Zone.
The petrographic study showed that quartz mineral is the main component of the sandstone in Zubair Formation with very low percentage of feldspar and rare rock fragments to classified as quartz arenite sandtone. There are five lithologic changes (lithofacies) that have characterized the studied succession: - well sorted quartz arenite, poorly sorted quartz arenite, poorly sorted graywacke, sandy shale, and shale. These lithofacieses were deposited in the deltaic environments as three associate
... Show MoreCarbonate-clastic succession which includes the Shu'aiba, Nahr Umr and Mauddud formations are representing a part of the Barremian-Aptian Sequence (Wasi'a Group). The present study includes three boreholes (Ba-1, 4 and 8) within the Balad Oil Field. The study area is located in central Iraq. This field represents a subsurface anticline with a northwest to southeast direction axis within the Mesopotamian Zone. Eight types of microfacies were recognized in the succession of the Mauddud and Shu’aiba formations. These microfacies represent shallow open marine, restricted and semi-restricted, reef - back reef, deep open marine and basinal depositional environments. While Nahr Umr Formation includes two successions, the first is the upp
... Show MoreBirds of prey (Raptors) are top predator avian species that many migrate annually through Mesopotamian marshes in southern Iraq toward their wintering grounds in Arabia and Africa, while others are breeding residents; however, information on their current status is scarce. From January 2016 to April 2019, a total of 20 field expeditions were conducted in the geographical zone of the Mesopotamian marshes, wetlands of international importance. The survey covered the Central Marshes, Al-Hammar and Hawizeh Marsh. One of the objectives of the field surveys is to list the raptors species that wintering and/or migrating through the Mesopotamian marshes and to understand their current spatial and temporal distribution. In the present study, a to
... Show MoreIn this study, the stable isotop 18O and 2H has been used to investigate the interaction of surface water (SW), and groundwater (GW) in Al-Taji district/ Northern Baghdad for two seasons (March and August 2022). 16 Samples were collected from water resources in the Al-Taji district (Tigris channel, Tigris River, and groundwater), in each season water samples from 8 Tigris channel, 5 drilled wells, and 3 Tigris River were taken for the analysis of the isotopes 18O and 2H. The average analysis results of 18O and 2H in the Tigris channel, Tigris River, and groundwater were found to be -3.435‰ and -18.6094‰, -2.07167‰ and -17.81‰, -4.125‰ and -34.707‰ respectively. The results, generally, show a comparable range of isotope c
... Show MoreThe study of the geochemical characterization of sandstone rocks contributes to understand the nature of the source rocks, their tectonic setting and the effects of paleoclimate and paleo-weathering. Accordingly, twenty sandstone samples from the red sandstone units of the Gercus Formation were collected from the northeastern limb of Safin Anticline at Shaqlawa Area – Northern Iraq. The studied sandstone samples show depletion in major, trace elements contents, except for CaO, MgO and Ni, Co and Cr respectively, and general depletion in the rare earth elements (REE) contents. Major element geochemistry indicates that the red bed sandstones of the Gercus Formation are of an oceanic island arc (OIA) tectonic setting. On the other
... Show MoreA mineralogical study using X-ray diffraction supported by scanning electron microscopic examination on the Paleocene- Eocene Kolosh and Gercus formations from northern Iraq is conducted to show the distribution of clay minerals and their paleoenvironmental implications. Smectite palygorskite, kaolinite, illite, and chlorite are commonly present in varying proportions within the Kolosh and Gercus formations. Association of smectite and chlorite in the claystone of the Paleocene Kolosh Formation refers to marine environment of this formation, whereas development of palygorskite fibers from smectite precursor may relate to post-depositional diagenesis. In addition, the abundance of illite and kaolinite in the Eocen
... Show MoreBasin analysis (geohistory) is carried out on the Cretaceous to Tertiary succession in five wells at Kirkuk and Bai Hassan Oil Fields during the Aptian to the Recent. The Foothill Zone exhibited a complex subsidence and uplift history over a period of about 132 Ma. The results from studied wells backstripping provide a record of the subsidence and uplift history in a number of important Meso-Cenozoic depositional successions. They show that there are three distinct episodes separated by unconformity surfaces. The value of compaction varies from large during the Cretaceous period to less clearly during the Paleogene and then almost non-existent during the Neogene. Generally, the subsidence is continuous and gradual during Mesozoic and sud
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