CLAY MINERALS IN SOME IRAQI SOILS NORTH AND SOUTHE AL- HANDIA DAM

Four soil pedons along the Euphrates river were chosen, two of them were north of Al-Handia Dam ( Jurf Al-nasr and Um-Aruk), when the other two pedons ( Al-Tubar village and Almishkhab) were chosen south of Dam, in order to study the impact of the location of Al-Handia Dam on the distribution and characteristics of clay minerals in Euphrates river sediments. Infrared technique has been used to diagnosis and characterized the clay minerals in studied soils. Results showed the dominance of chlorite, mica and kaolinite minerals within sediments of Euphrates river north of Al-Hindiyah Dam, while montmorillonite and (M-S) interstratified minerals were dominant south of Dam. Also, results showed that the dam construction has affected the process of sorting and deposition of sediment particles in the Euphrates river, depending on the sizes of these particles and their specific gravities.