Criteria for identifying groundwater in rifting basins in arid and semi-arid zones: a case study Sharm El Bahary in Egyp
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Criteria for identifying groundwater in rifting basins in arid and semi‑arid zones: a case study Sharm El Bahary in Egypt Ahmed F. Yousef1 Received: 29 April 2020 / Accepted: 29 September 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Some arid and semiarid countries that have large amounts of freshwater stored in rifting basin situations like the Res Sea are probably quite rare internationally. In this paper, we suggest criteria for identifying potential groundwater resource targets in rifting basins based on topographical, geomorphological, morphometric, geological, hydrogeological, hydrological, and vegetation data. The criteria were tested in the Sharm El Bahary basin for identifying targets for groundwater exploration. The priority of these targets depends on the thickness, extent, and lithology of aquifer materials, and the mechanism of recharge. The highest priority groundwater targets have a low topography and are underlain by coarse-textured sediments that have a high infiltration rate. These sites have negligible surface drainage and are located within graben structures where sediment thickness may reach up to 600 m. Keywords Criteria · Groundwater · Rifting basins · Red sea and Sharm El Bahary
Introduction Arid and semiarid of the world are facing shortages in their freshwater supplies because of their increasing populations and the absence of a comprehensive understanding of the geologic, structural, and hydrogeological controls on the development and preservation of these resources. Such an understanding is needed to enable the sustainable utilization of these resources. Many countries are fortunate in having large amounts of freshwater stored in extensive aquifers that stretch for hundreds to thousands of kilometers in basins associated with rifting such as the region near the Red Sea. These basins not only contain aquifers with fossil groundwater that was recharged under previous wet climatic periods (e.g., Sturchio et al. 2004) but may also receive local meteoric contributions in intervening dry climatic periods (Sultan et al. 2007, 2008, 2010). Bosworth et al. (2005) distinguished three phases of Red Sea rifting: (1) late Oligocene–early Miocene rift initiation; (2) early Miocene main syn-rift subsidence; and (3) middle Miocene onset of the Aqaba-Dead Sea transform. The Red * Ahmed F. Yousef [email protected] 1
Geology Department, Desert Research Center, 1 Mathaf El Matariya Street, El Matariya, Box No. 11753, Cairo, Egypt
Sea rift initially included the present Gulf of Suez, Bitter Lakes, and the Nile Delta region on the continental margin of North Africa (Bosworth and McClay 2001). The northwestern Red Sea rift is occupied by two major sub-basins with a number of rift blocks that are separated by the Duwi accommodation zone. These are the Safaga sub-basin in the north and the Quseir-Umm Gheig sub-basin in the south (Abd El-Wahed et al. 2010). Information about groundwater occurrences in rifting basins or sub-basins is very limited and,
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