Chemical and Mineralogical Nature of The
Sediments of Sawa Lake in Muthanna
Governorate, Southwestern Iraq

Abstract
The sediments of the Sawa lake surrounded area, southern Iraq, have unique proprieties that are interesting to researchers.
Four sites located at varying distances from the lake were selected to study some of the properties of the lake sediment. The
results indicate that the study soil is saline soils because of the values of the three salinity criteria (EC, TDS, and NaCl(. The
values of electrical conductivity ranged between (١٠٠.١١ and ٧٤.٧٨) ds.m–١for surface depths, whereas for subsurface depths
ranged between (١٤.٦٦ and ٣٨.٥٥) ds.m–١. The values of the total soluble salts ranged from (٧.٤ and ٨٥.٦٧) g/L. The
percentage of sodium chloride ranged between (٣.١ and ٨.٥)%. The results present that the soils of the study fall within the
neutral to the low basal soils as the values of the degree of interaction ranged between (٧.٠٠ and ٧.٥٥). The sand proportion in
soil texture was more than clay and loam proportions, which ranged between (٤٢٠ and ٧٨٠) g.kg–١. The dominance of the
intermediate soil texture (loam) category for most depths of the study soil (S.C.L, S.L(. The distribution of sand particles of
different sizes took the following patterns: The first location, which is far from the lake was the dominance of the soft
particles rather than coarse particles. The second site, the closest to the lake, was the dominance of rougher particles .The soft
and semi–soft particles of the sand were prevalent in the third and fourth sites, which were the distances between (١٥٥) m to
(١٤٧) m, respectively. The results indicated the convergence of sediment content of light and heavy metals in all locations and
homogeneity of distribution of metals in all sites