GEOMORPHOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL STUDIES ON BAHIG-BURG EL-ARAB AREA, NORTH OF THE WESTERN DESERT, EGYPT

Abstract

The limestone ridges parallel to the Mediterranean coast, west of Alexandria, with its enclosing elongate depressions filled by lagoonal sabkha, had paid the attention of many authors. The area is so important for academic purposes and also for industrial requirements. The major morphological features together with the lithological and petrographical characteristics had been clarified by many authors e.g Philip (1953), Shukri (1955), Shata (1957) and others.

The present work discusses details of the geomorphological and geological characteristics of Bahig-Burg El-Arab area, in order to obtain more information about the present structural modal and morphological alterations going on, beside studying the petrography, some chemical and petrophysical characteristics and fossil content of the rock units then interprete the paleoenvironmental and depositional conditions. LOCATION OF THE PROJECT AREA

The area under investigation lies at the eastern part of the Egyptian Northern Mediterranean coast zone, approximately 30 km west of Alexandria (Fig. 1). It occurs roughly between longitudes 29" 3!Y and 29" 351E and latitudes 30"4<Y and 31°N. PREVIOUS RELATED WORK The area of study attracted the attention of many workers. Philip (1953) distinguished three geomorphic units in the northern part of the Western Desert; the coastal plain, piedment plain of Pleistocene and Recent sediments, and table land