Paleoenvironment and Paleoclimatic Imprints of the Khurmala Formation in Bakoz Village, Duhok Governorate, Northern Iraq

Although the deposition of the Khurmala Formation within the Paleocene-Eocene AP10 Megasequence was controlled by the tectonic environment, the synchronization of AP10 deposition with the so-called the Paleocene - Eocene thermal maximum extreme global climatic hyperthermal events left an imprint on the details of the Khurmala formation characteristics. The present study aimed to elicit the depositional environment for Khurmala Formation, in addition to trace the inherited paleoclimatic indicators or imprints on the studied section. The study of litho / microfacies of the khurmala formation in the Bakoz village section in Dohuk City, northern Iraq revealed that the khurmala formation was deposited in a ramp paleoenvironment affected by storm action under warming tropical climate conditions. Planktonic foraminifera age determination in integration with both sedimentary environment properties and x-ray diffraction interpretations indicated that deposition of the Khurmala Formation bears many imprints of long-term warming trend conditions from the Late Paleocene to Early Eocene (58 to 50 Ma).