Relay Ramp of Abu-Jir Fault Zone, Western Iraq

A previously unstudied structure such as a relay ramp provides a great understanding of the geometry and behavior of the Abu-Jir Fault Zone. The field work, using topographic maps of a 10 meters contour interval and digital images revealed a relay ramp structure within the fault zone. Abu-JirFault consists of two segments, Sahliyah and Al-Dulab, which were chosen, both of which are right step normal faults subjected to strike-slip movement, where both are located northwest of the Heet area which them connected by a relay ramp. These ramps contained some accommodated antithetic structures such as local folds and faults. The results show much understanding of the Abu-JirFault Zone and its role in hydrocarbon migration and entrapment in the studied area.