The raw material soil of Al-Sowera factory quarry (quarry soil and mixture) used for building brick industry was tested mineralogically, geochemically and geotechnically. Mineral components of soil are characterized by Clay minerals (Palygoriskite and chlorite) and nonclay minerals like calcite, quratz, feldspar, gypsum and halite. The raw material is deficient in SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , K 2 O, Fe 2 O 3 and MgO, while enriched in CaO. Loss on ignition and Na 2 O are in suitable level and appear to be concordant with the standard. Grain size analyses show that the decreasing sand and clay, and increasing silt ratio in both quarry soil and mixture caused decreasing in strength of brick during molding and after firing. The quarry soil is characterized by high plasticity clayey soil of 30.49 plastic index (P.I), whereas the mixture considered a clayey soil has a low plasticity of 7.7 plastic index (P.I). To improve the chemical and physical properties of the raw material, alumina-silicate minerals rich in K 2 O, Fe 2 O 3 and MgO are recommended as additive materials to the main mixture.

Four hundred and seventy eight gravity base stations in Iraq were used to obtain a new local theoretical gravity equation. The obtained equation was used to construct a Bouguer anomaly map of Iraq depending on the available gravity base stations. This map was compared with the Bouguer map constructed for the same stations using the international formula (1930). Good similarity in shapes and locations of the anomaly were observed, while the   gravity anomaly values in the new map were increased by about 30 mGal. The eastern zero gravity contour line of the new obtained gravity map coincides with the western  boundary of the tectonic Mesopotamian zone, while the main negative  gravity values coincide with the Mesopotamian area, which contains most oil fields in eastern Iraq. All negative gravity anomaly areas coincide with the deepest basement rocks (the sedimentary basins) in Iraq. The obtained results are very valuable in geological applications.

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Geotechnical characterization of the sites has been investigated with the collection of borehole data from different sources. Using the data, grain size distribution curves have been developed to understand the particle size distribution of the alluvium present. These curves were further used for preliminary assessment of liquefiable areas. From geotechnical characterization, it has been observed that the soil profile in the two sites is dominated by sand and silty sand.Seed and Idriss (1971) approachhas been usedevaluatethe liquefaction potentialbydeterminationof the relation between the maximum ground acceleration (a max/g) valuesdue to an earthquake and the relative density of a sand deposit in the field. The results reveal that the study area will be subjected to occurrence of liquefaction under an earthquake of maximum ground acceleration of 0.1 g when the soil is loose with a relative density between (25-40) % in Kerbala city.Design chartswere obtained for determination of liquefaction potentialin any layer with knowingthe field relative densityand the value of the maximum ground surface acceleration.