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Surface evidences supporting a probable new concept for the river systems evolution in Egypt: a remote sensing overview

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Abstract

Compilation between the previous studies about the river systems evolution and integrating them with the remotely sensed data-based landscape analysis provide a new vision to the river systems evolution in Egypt during the Cenozoic Era. Relics of geomorphologic features left in the old basins related to these rivers suggest the existence of a natural dam between Nag Hammadi City and Wadi El-Assuiti. This barrier was separating two river systems during Late Miocene time: (1) the Qena River System and (2) the newly suggested North Egypt River System. The North Egypt River is supposed to be started by the Wadi El-Assuiti drainage basin, which flowed first in a westward direction, from its source in the Eastern Limestone Plateau to continue in a northward direction across the Nile Canyon (along the course of the Nile) to join the drainage system of Wadi Tarfa and Wadi Sannur and to end, finally, in the depression of Wadi El-Natrun to constitute the Wadi El-Natrun Miocene Delta. The present interpretation on the existence of a North Egypt River System, with the presence of an old natural dam to the south of Nag Hammadi City, necessitates a revision of the concepts used for groundwater exploration in Upper Egypt.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank prof. Ibrahim El-Kassas and Prof. Omar Cherif of National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS) and Prof. Mohamed Sultan of Department of Geosciences, Western Michigan University for their comprehensive review and very useful comments. The authors appreciate the peer reviewers who reviewed and commented on this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geoscience Department, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

    Abotalib Z. Abotalib

  2. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Minia University, El-Minia, Egypt

    Ramadan S. A. Mohamed

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  1. Abotalib Z. Abotalib
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  2. Ramadan S. A. Mohamed
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Correspondence to Abotalib Z. Abotalib.

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Abotalib, A.Z., Mohamed, R.S.A. Surface evidences supporting a probable new concept for the river systems evolution in Egypt: a remote sensing overview. Environ Earth Sci 69, 1621–1635 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1998-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1998-z

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