The Geography and Geology of Iraq

With the war going on in Iraq much attention is focused on this little country, its lands and its people. To understand something about the geography and geology of the country is to better understand what troops are up against, and indeed what the people of Iraq themselves are sometimes against.

There are four main regions to the geography of Iraq. There is the desert in the west and southwest, the rolling upland between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, highlands in the north and northeast and the alluvial plain through which the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow. Total land area is about 438,446 square kilometers.

The desert region west and southwest of the Euphrates is part of the Syrian desert which runs west into Syria and south into Saudi Arabia. Here and there on this sparse wasteland is a pattern of waterways, dry all year except for the brief floods during the winter rains. Few people live on this desert except for some pastoral nomads.

The uplands region running between an area north of the Tigris and Euphrates is called Al Jazirah, the Island. It is actually part of a larger area which extends westward into Syria and Turkey. Although there is more water in this area, running in deep cut valleys, it is still dry enough to be considered a desert.

Iraq's northeastern area is highlands which extend to the Turkey and Iranian borders. The area begins as broad steppes and blends into mountains ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 meters. Except for a few valleys, the only useable area is some of the foothills and steppes used for grazing. Soil and rainfall conditions make some agriculture possible. This area is also home to oilfields and the Kurds.

The alluvial plain begins north of Baghdad and extends to the Persian Gulf. Here the Tigris and Euphrates rivers lie above the level of the plain in many places, and the whole area is a delta interlaced by the channels of the two rivers and by irrigation canals. Intermittent lakes, fed by the rivers in flood, also characterize southeastern Iraq. There is also a fair amount of marshland in this area.

The Tigris and Euphrates also carry large quantities of salts. These, too, are spread on the land by sometimes excessive irrigation and flooding. A high water table and poor surface and subsurface drainage tend to concentrate the salts near the surface of the soil. In general, the salinity of the soil increases from Baghdad south to the Persian Gulf and severely limits productivity in the region south of Al Amarah. The salinity is reflected in the large lake in central Iraq, southwest of Baghdad, known as Bahr al Milh (Sea of Salt).

The Euphrates and Tigris rivers enter Iraq from Turkey. The Tigris is significantly augmented by several rivers in Iraq, the most important of which are the Khabur, the Great Zab, the Little Zab, and the Uzaym, all of which join the Tigris above Baghdad. Water from the Tigris enters the Euphrates through the Shatt al Gharraf well above the confluence of the two main channels at Al Qurnah.

Both the Tigris and the Euphrates break into a number of channels in the marshland area, and the flow of the rivers is substantially reduced by the time they come together at Al Qurnah. Below Basra, however, the Karun River enters from Iran, carrying large quantities of silt that present a continuous problem in maintaining a channel for ocean-going vessels to reach the port at Basra. This problem had been superseded by a greater obstacle to river traffic, however, namely the presence of several sunken hulks that had been rusting in the Shatt al Arab since the first Gulf war.

The waters of the Tigris and Euphrates are essential to the life of the country, but they may also threaten it. The rivers are at their lowest level in September and October and at flood in March, April, and May when they may carry forty times as much water as at low mark. Since Syria built a dam on the Euphrates, the flow of water has been considerably diminished and flooding is reduced greatly.

Even without political problems, Iraq is a hard country to live in. Only a fraction of the land is useable and if it were not for the oil, the entire country would be in poverty. Still, the average annual income of the Iraqi is only 2500 US dollars.

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