AAPG ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Making the Next Giant Leap in Geosciences
April 10-13, 2011, Houston, Texas, USA

Stacked, Lower Miocene-Burdigalian Tide Dominated Estuaries, Western Desert, Egypt

Safiya Hassan¹, Ron J. Steel¹, Ahmed El-Barkooky², Mohamed Hamdam², Ahmed Abu Khadrah², Gouda Abdel Gawad³

¹ Jackson School of Geosciences, Austin, TX, United States ([email protected])
² Geology Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
³ Geology Department, Beni Suef University, Beni Suef , Egypt

Integrated sedimentologic, trace fossils and macrofossil data from the Lower Miocene, Burdigalian Moghra Formation, western desert, Egypt document a series of stratigraphic sequences within an estuarine complex. Eleven depositional sequences occur within the study area. These sequences represent repeated a transgressive to regressive conditions across the landscape. The transgressive part preserves fluvial to tide dominated estuarine deposits overlain by open shelf deposits. The regressive part preserves shelf up to tide dominated delta. Sequence architecture appears to have been driven by general tectonic subsidence and climate induced sediment supply changes. We see no evidence of a large eroded master valley, because eustatic falls would have been modest in Lower Miocene.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90124 © 2011 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 10-13, 2011, Houston, Texas