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Paleoposition and Paleogeography of Egypt During the Phanerozoic Era

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The Phanerozoic Geology and Natural Resources of Egypt

Abstract

The paleogeographic position of Egypt through the Phanerozoic is tightly connected to the motion of the African continent. Paleogeographic studies using paleomagnetism of rock samples from Egypt range back to the 70s and 90s of the last century, but they also continued until very recent times. Paleomagnetic data generally confirm that Egypt was part of Africa in the last ~150–200 Ma. Before that, high-quality paleomagnetic data from Egypt are sparse and possibly affected by remagnetization. Using the master apparent polar wander path of Africa and continental reconstructions, we reviewed the paleoposition of Egypt throughout the Phanerozoic. The general trend is a location of Egypt near the paleo-South Pole during the early Paleozoic, followed by a northward motion accompanied by rotational movements.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the editors of this book Zakaria Hamimi, Hassan Khozyem, and Haytham El Atfy for giving us the possibility to provide this chapter. We furthermore thank two constructive reviews by Massimo Mattei and Tesfaye Kidane Birke, whose comments led to a significant improvement of the chapter.

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Correspondence to Uwe Kirscher .

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Kirscher, U., Dallanave, E., Bachtadse, V. (2023). Paleoposition and Paleogeography of Egypt During the Phanerozoic Era. In: Hamimi, Z., et al. The Phanerozoic Geology and Natural Resources of Egypt. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95637-0_4

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