A preliminary geophysical investigation for establishing : a subsurface dam in Mirawa valley : northeast Erbil city-Iraqi Kurdistan region

Abstract EN

Subsurface dams are among the small but valuable water harvesting projects.

Twenty-four gravity measurements and 22 Vertical Electrical Soundings were used in the Mirawa area for the purpose of defining a small area for constructing a subsurface dam since some surface indications were observed encouraging such a work.

Bouguer anomalies across the Mirawa valley showed that a thickness of about 35m of fluvial deposits is likely to be filling the valley.

This thickness was agreed by the resistivity data that were arranged along four traverses.

The average depth of a clayey base, which was interpreted in all traverses, is about 25m below surface covered by mainly two layers of porous and permeable layers.

Three-dimensional diagram and a subsurface sketch for the geological and technical situations are also given