The Chemical and Physical Characteristics of Barchan Dunes in the Middle East | ||
| IRAQI JOURNAL OF DESERT STUDIES | ||
| Article 6, Volume 13, Issue 2, December 2023, Pages 51-60 PDF (1.42 M) | ||
| Document Type: Research Paper | ||
| DOI: 10.36531/ijds.2023.145007.1055 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Ali M. Al-Dousari* 1; Salih Muhammad Awadh2; Muthana Muhammad Alrawi3; Abdullatif Alyaqout4; Noor Muhammad Al-Dousari4; Abeer Hassan Alsaleh4; Teena Jacop William4 | ||
| 1Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) | ||
| 2Geology Department, College of Sciences, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq | ||
| 3Department of Soil Sciences, College of Agriculture, University of Anbar, Ramadi, Iraq | ||
| 4Department of Geography, College of Social Sciences, Kuwait University, Kuwait | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Sand physical and chemical properties of dune sand in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates were analyzed. There are three types of sand dunes in the study area: isolated dunes, groups, and belts. Four regional zones of mobile dune corridors with different chemical and physical properties have been identified. The sand dune grains of the Mesopotamian flood plain (Iraq) are the finest in size, with poor standard deviation, with a purity of silica (<75%), containing 6-19% carbonates and feldspar, and with the highest grain area (10 -50 g/m2) when compared to sand dunes in the study area. The dunes in Iraq contain the highest ratio of heavy metals, clay, feldspar, and carbonate among sand dunes, which makes them the best for agriculture and can be fixed and stabilized efficiently by environmentally friendly materials or native plants. The dominant sand dunes in Northwest Arabia and Northeast Kuwait are coarse sands of good standard deviation, with less than 1% carbonate and feldspar, low grain surface area (<1 g/m2), and high silica content (above 98%) Which makes it the highest purity sand dunes in the Middle East and the best for manufacturing glass and PV panels. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Barchan; Sand movement; Silica; Carbonates; The Middle East | ||
| References | ||
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