Geological structure of the coastal aquifer in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, Palestine
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Geological structure of the coastal aquifer in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, Palestine Usama Zaineldeen & Khalid Qahman & Jehad Al-Dasht
Received: 6 February 2013 / Accepted: 22 August 2013 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2013
Abstract The current study introduces the geological subsurface cross-sections in the southern part of the Gaza Strip to show the structure of the aquifer in the area. The crosssections give evidence of four subaquifers of the coastal aquifer in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. These crosssections give the natural reasons for the deterioration of the groundwater in the study area. The results show presence of clay lenses that prevent the replenishment processes of the aquifer of fresh water from the rainfall and returns flow from agricultural activities. Lithological formation was evident as one of the natural causes which accelerate destroying process of the coastal aquifer. The results also show that the structure of the aquifer causes the increase of the groundwater salinity in the Gaza Strip. The cross-sections had shown the shortage of storage capacity of high quantities of fresh water in the coastal aquifer in these areas. The role of lithological formation was evident as one of the natural causes to accelerate the process of destroying the coastal aquifer. Keywords Gaza Strip . Aquifer . Subaquifer . Clay lenses
U. Zaineldeen (*) Department of Geology, Al Azhar University–Gaza, Gaza, Palestine e-mail: [email protected] U. Zaineldeen e-mail: [email protected] U. Zaineldeen e-mail: [email protected] K. Qahman Environment Quality Authority, Gaza, Palestine J. Al-Dasht Palestinian Water Authority, Gaza, Palestine
Introduction The coastal aquifer plays an important role for water supply in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip aquifer is the southern part of Palestine's coastal aquifer (Fig. 1). The southern part of the Gaza Strip is considered as one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Groundwater is the main source of freshwater in this area. Geology, land use, poor hydrological management, climate change, and land cover are the most important factors that influence groundwater quality. The study area (Fig. 1) is located in the southern part of the Gaza Strip represented by the governorate of Khan Younis and Rafah and is considered as one of the most densely populated areas. The Gaza Strip is located on the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea between longitudes 34°2″ and 34°25″ east and latitudes 31°16″ and 31°45″ north. The width of the strip ranges between 5 km at the middle to 8 km at the north and 12 km at the south, where the study area is located. Its length is approximately 40 km along the coastline and its area is about 378 km2 (UNDP 2009). The Gaza Strip surface, as a whole, is covered by the Pliocene–Quaternary sediments varying from the Pliocene sand dunes and alternating Pleistocene loess and gravels outcropping in the Wadi Gaza (Picard 1943; El Khoudary and Anan 1985). The Pleistocene coastal area has alte
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