Impact of Climate Changes on the Hydrochemistry of Razaza Lake and Rahaliya – Shithatha Springs – Central Iraq

The climate parameters, rainfall, temperature data for more than forty years for three Iraqi meteorological stations (Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul) were studied .The results show good evidence of climate change indicated by the remarkable decrease of the average means annual rainfall in the studied stations, with the remarkable increase of the average minimum annual temperature. The impact of the climatic change on the hydrochemistry of Razaza lake and Rahaliya – Shithatha springs was obvious in increasing the water salinity as studied for years 1995 and 2013. The average mean annual rainfall for ten years intervals indicate that there were a remarkable decrease in amount of rainfall from 90 mm for the period 1992-2001 to about 71 mm for the period 2002- 2013.  The Razzaza lake water has indicated that chloride group and one major family (Chloride-sodium family) is the dominant for years 1995 and 2013 with increase of Mg ions during 2013. The Rahaliya – Shithatha springs’ water has showed that the sulphate and chloride groups are dominant for years 1995 and 2013, with increase of sulphate group to 80% during 2013. Keywords: Climatic changes, hydrochemistry, Razaza lake and Rahaliya – Shithatha springs, Iraq

TAPHONOMY OF SOME VERTEBRATE FOSSILS FROM HEMRIN ANTICLINE, MIDDLE IRAQ

The study area is located near Injana area; about 140 Km north of Baghdad City, middle Iraq. The Late Miocene – Pliocene site of the Mukdadiya Formation which is exposed in the northeastern limb of Hemrin South Anticline is a good example for the vertebrate fossil bones. The fossil bones can be studied by multidisciplinary sciences; tectonics, sedimentology, vertebrate fossils taxonomy and volcanic activities to understand the taphonomic processes of the involved fossil assemblages. The Alpine Orogeny in the Late Miocene increased the uplifting, folding and shortening of the Zagros Thrust Fold Belt and subsidence of the Zagros Foreland Basin in middle Iraq. Large fluvial systems, especially alluvial fans have been flowing from the northeast to the southwest in relatively humid climates. The current study concluded the following: The appearance of 21 species in the site refers to the humid and more luxurious environment. Availability of water and sediments (sand, mud, and clay) near fluvial sub environments enriched the diversity of plant that helped a different kind of amphibians such as crocodiles and turtles to living and breeding. The plant diversity provided the food for herbivores such as deer, giraffes, horses, mastodons, and later for the predators and carnivores. The presence of tuff stone, glass shards, pyroclastic crystals, tuffaceous sandstone, tuffaceous mudstone and tuffaceous claystone refer to volcanic activities and caused the suffocation and mass mortality of animals during the Late Miocene – Pliocene. Soft parts of dead animals were decay, while the bones transported by fluvial channel during heavy rain and mixed with the channel bed loads. They might be deposited and reworked by many cycles of deposition and finally, the redeposit within channel lag deposits in the lower part of point bars of the fluvial environment