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The Palaeozoic history of the Western Desert of Egypt
Author(s) -
Keeley MARTIN L.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
basin research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.522
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1365-2117
pISSN - 0950-091X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2117.1989.tb00025.x
Subject(s) - geology , paleozoic , paleontology , permian , sedimentary depositional environment , lineament , structural basin , sequence (biology) , inversion (geology) , ecological succession , clastic rock , tectonics , ecology , biology , genetics
Abstract A formal stratigraphical scheme is proposed for the Palaeozoic succession encountered in the subsurface of the Western Desert of Egypt, and is compared to other published schemes in North Africa. Two groups and seven formations span the interval from the Mid Cambrian to the Early Permian. The resolution between these superficially similar clastic‐dominated units is enhanced by the use of the palyno‐stratigraphical zonation devised by Gueinn & Rasul. It is apparent from an analysis of this rock sequence that two depositional regimes can be recognized. In the first of these, the Ghazalat Basin lay over the central Western Desert, and was bounded by high axes to the west and south‐east. An inversion event of Early Tournaisian age preceded a new depositional regime, centred along the Libyan border: the Tehenu Basin. A poorly understood sequence of strike‐slip movements on the Trans‐African Lineament is shown to be the most likely cause of this complex basin history. One consequence of this hypothesis is, however, to throw into question the validity of correlations made with the Gulf of Suez Palaeozoic succession, across the Trans‐African Lineament.