Hierakonpolis, Greek for City of the Hawk, nearly 25 km NW of Idfu (Egypt), is an important and extensive archaeological discovery covering a large area. Its richness in archaeological artifacts makes it a valuable site. It has a valid claim to be the first nation state, as indicated by the Palette of Narmer discovered in its main mound. Geological and hydrogeological investigations at the Hierakonpolis Temple Town site documented nearly a 4.0-m water table rise from as early as 1892 to the present. In addition to the rising water levels, the increase of both subsoil water salinity and humidity threatens and damages fragile carvings and paintings within tombs in Kingdom Hill, the foundation stability of the site, and the known and still to be discovered artifact that recent pottery finds dates at least 4,000 BCE. Representative rock and soil samples obtained from drilled cores in the study area were chosen for conducting detailed grain size and X-ray analysis, light and heavy mineral occurrences, distribution of moisture and total organic matter, and scanning electron microscopy investigations. Mineralogical analysis of clays indicated that the soil samples are composed of smectite/illite mixed layers with varying proportions of smectite to illite. Kaolinite is the second dominant clay constituent, besides occasional chlorite. Swelling of the clay portion of the soil, due to the presence of capillary groundwater, in contact with buried mudbrick walls expands and causes severe damage to important exposed and buried mudbrick structures, including the massive ancient "fort" believed to date from the Second Dynasty (from 2,890 to 2,686 BC). The "fort" is 1.0 km south of the Temple Town mounds near to confluence of Wadi Abu Sufian. Groundwater samples from the shallow aquifer close by the intersection of Wadi Abu Sufian and the Nile flood plain were analyzed for chemical composition and stable isotope ratios. The groundwater in the upper zone (subsoil water) within fine-grained Nile alluvium is characterized by high salinity which varies from 415 to 4,500 mg/L total dissolved solids. In contrast, most of the groundwater samples in the lower zone (Quaternary aquifer) are characterized by a low salinity in the order of 164-792 mg/L. Values of δD and δO(18) obtained from this deep (9-20 m) aquifer ranged from 16.98 to 19.87 ‰ and from 1.67 to 2.99 ‰, respectively. These values indicated that the Quaternary aquifer waters are recharged directly from recent Nile water. Subsoil water is very shallow in the area; it ranged from 0 to 2.6 m with a mean of 1.1 m within the main mound of the Hierakonpolis Temple Town site by 2003, in contrast to its more than 4.5-m depth in 1897. The exposure of subsoil water to increased evaporation is expected, with a consequent increase in the concentrations of dissolved solids and usually large proportions of chloride and sulfate. Artifacts recovered from the Temple Town site are becoming damaged and destroyed by crystallization processes caused by repeated wetting and drying of salt and the...
The Gulf of Suez is considered as a multi-reservoir's basin, containing several reservoirs. It is located at the northeast end of the African plate, along the African-Arab plates. One of the main reservoirs in the Gulf of Suez is the Lower Rudeis (July Member), especially in July Oilfield, and was deposited during the Early Miocene. Comprehensive studies were performed to illustrate the relationships between the different reservoir parameters measured through the well log analysis. The July member reservoir was divided into three zones based on geophysical log responses: denominate zones (A), (B) and zone (C). Petrophysical parameters were calculated, together with lithology and porosity identification crossplots, for each zone individually to evaluate the July member sandstones. The obtained data indicated that the July member appears to be a good quality reservoir with relatively high storage capacity, with average shale volume of 8 to 42%, average effective porosity of 9.2 to 15.9 %, average calculated permeability of 16.2 to 71 mD, and average hydrocarbon saturation of 10.3 to 73.3 %. The reservoir parameters when mapped at the three levels of the reservoir zones have provided a clear figure about the horizontal distribution of these parameters in the study area and helped in tracing these parameters vertically.
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