Sea Water Intrusion Modeling in Rashid Area of Nile Delta (Egypt) via the Inversion of DC Resistivity Data

Abstract

The current research focuses on the detection of sea water intrusion in Rashid area which is located about 75 km east to Alexandria, Egypt. For this purpose, geoelectrical survey was carried out using the Schlumberger Vertical Electric Sounding (VES) to identify freshwater thickness, sea water intrusion and estimate subsurface lithology. Seventeen VES stations were measured with current electrode separation (AB/2) ranging from 1.5 m to 100 m. Then, the VES data was interpreted using 1-D and 2-D inversion schemes of DC resistivity data based on least squares method with smoothness constrains. The inverted resistivity distribution at relatively shallow depth shows an important low resistivity zone that probably reflects salt water alteration zone (northern parts). Depth to the freshwater bearing layer reaches its maximum at the south and decreases towards the north. From quantitative interpretation, invasion of salt water started at depth about 10 m at north in the thickness of freshwater bearing layer ranging from 15 to 25 m, while at depth of about 120 m all the layers were saturated with salt water.

Seismic Structural Analysis of the Alam-El Bueib Formation, Qasr Oil Field, North Western desert, Egypt

“…Geologically, the northern western desert of Egypt is belonging to the Unstable Shelf province [4,6,13]. The sedimentary sequence of the Unstable Shelf is thick with a lower part of clastic sediments, followed by a middle calcareous series and topped by biogenic carbonates.…”

“…These fold bundles are trending northeast and referred to the Syrian Arc. The Precambrian basement lies to southern Egypt and shows slope to the north with gradual thickening of the sedimentary cover [4].…”

“…The orientation of the basin bounding faults in Shushan Basin is E-W to ENE-WSW and WNW-ESE to NW-SE in some segments of the basin [2]. The sedimentary succession ranges in age from Cambro-Ordovician to Miocene [3][4][5][6]. The Middle Jurassic Khatatba shale is the main oil and gas source rock in the north Western desert [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”