TRACING THE ORIGIN OF SULPHUR IN DARZILA KARST CAVE, NE IRAQ

摘要

Darzila cave, located in the Sangaw district in Northern Iraq, develops by the dissolution of limestone by sulphuric acid through oxidation of H_2S. Previous workers such as Khanaqa and Al-Manmi (2011) were uncertain about the origin of hydrogen sulphide in the cave waters. They suggested gypsum from the Lower Fars Formation as main sulphur source and mentioned a potential influence of nearby petroleum fields. The main deliverable of this study was to resolve these speculations and to trace back the origin of cave waters by hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur isotopic analyses.