HYDROGEOLOGICAL STUDY OF AREA BETWEEN NAJAF – KARBALAA CITIES

Abstract

The area which located along the road between the Karbalaa and Najaf cities is one of
the important areas in terms of hydrogeological view due to containing the groundwater
reservoirs of sandy Debdebba and Dammam limestone formations. The exposed part of
the Sandy Debdibba formation helps to renew its water and maintenance of groundwater
storage through the infiltration of rainfall and surface floods. The groundwater
movement in this reservoir flows from west towards east and south-east direction, while
the quality of groundwater in this reservoir is characterized to be highly concentrated
with dissolved salts which are generally ranged between (2000) to (4700) PPM. The Dammam Formation is consider as an aquifer in this area where its western
hydraulic boundary characterized to be continuous underground water movement
coming from west and south -west direction of the Western Desert. Most of formation
thickness considered being saturated thickness of reservoir due to containing wide and
expanded caves and cracks as a result of structural and weathering impact. These factors
helped to expand cracks on formation exposed surface as well as caves inside it. The
Groundwater movement in this aquifer flows from west towards Euphrates River. The
salinity of groundwater in this reservoir is varied ranging between (1900) to (3700) PPM
with calcium sulfate type.