Hydrogeochemical model of Debaga Basin, Northeast Iraq

Al-Tamimi,; Sabah, Omer; Yvonne,; Unger-Lindig,; Merkel,; Broder,

	Hydrogeochemical model of Debaga Basin, Northeast Iraq
Tikrit Journal of Pure Science
Article 1, Volume 17, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 181-190
Authors
; Omer Sabah; ; ; ;
Abstract
Hydrogeochemical characteristics of groundwater in Debaga Basin were studied. PhreeqC-modeling was done for 99 water analysis including calculation of Saturation Indices (SI) ,precipitation and dissolution of calcite and gypsum, respectively. Variations of the pore space resulting from the last two processes were also highlighted. Because of the fact that the groundwater is mainly used as irrigation water, processes which may influence the water chemistry were also modeled. These processes are equilibration with atmospheric conditions (degassing of CO2) and losses of irrigation water by evaporation up to 20%. The groundwater in Debaga Basin is supersaturated with respect to calcite and dolomite and under-saturated with respect to gypsum. However, precipitation of calcite will have no negative influence on pore space. Changes in water chemistry will mainly occur by degassing of CO2, which will result in a lower solubility for calcite and an increase of the SI for calcite. This significant super saturation with respect to calcite will lead to precipitation of calcite, since the water is used as irrigation water. This will mainly affect the calcite content of the agricultural soils, which are still shows high calcite concentrations. Evaporation losses of the irrigation water have only slightly influence on further precipitation of calcite.
Keywords
hydrochemical modeling; Debaga Basin; Iraq

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