CONTRIBUTION OF GEOPHYSICAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE SUBSURFACE GEOLOGIC INTERPRETATIONS OF THE WEST OF CAIRO AREA, WESTERN DESERT, EGYPT

Abstract

The present study is devoted for the transformations and interpretation of the available geophysical data, utillizing the Bouguer gravity data and the total intensity aeromagnetic data, of the west of Cairo area northern Western Desert, Egypt, which lies between latitudes 28° 45' and 30° 00' N, and longitudes 29° 00' and 32° 00' E. This is to study the configurations of the existing sedimentary ridges and basins and the related swells and troughs of the basement complex, in addition to a reasonable picture about the shallow-seated and deep seated structures intervening their rocks. These interpretations aimed at last to emphasize the tectonic elements of this part of Egypt.

Potential field methods are considered among the main tools, which are increasingly employed to serve such earlier purposes and usually preferred, for speed and economic reasons, in the regional studies. Therefore, these methods have been chosen and the Bouguer gravity and aeromagnetic data, of scale 1:100,000 and 1:250,000, represent the backbone of the materials of this study. Accordingly, the gravity and aeromagnetic data were subjected to several transformations and enhancement operations in order to be in more resolvable and interpretable forms. Moreover, the resulted data have been contoured and interpreted qualitatively and quantitavely. In this respect, the qualitative interpretation has a great importance in detecting, delineating and evaluating descriptively the shallow and deep-seated sources and their tectonic boundaries standing behind their formation.