Geology of wadi atalla - el missikat area, eastern desert, egypt.

Abstract

Wadi Atalla-El Missikat area covers about 2,000 Km2 in the central Eastern Desert of Egypt, between latitudes 26° 10' and 26° 40' N, and longitudes 33° 15' and 33° 40' E. The area is mainly formed of basement complex except its extreme south-western corner where it is covered by foreland sediments of Nubian sandstone. The area is structurally complicated where it has been subjected to various stages of successive tectonic movements since the Precambrian times. The basement complex in the study area is represented by a wide variety of igneous and metamorphic rocks belonging to seven major lithostratigraphic units namely: geosynclinal sediments, main geosynclinal volcanics, synorogenic plutonites, emerging geosynclinal volcanics, postgeosynclinal sediments, late erogenic plutonites and postorogenic volcanics. This alternating sedimentation, volcanicity and plutonism reflects the principal geotectonic evolution of this part of the erogenic belt in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The basement rocks exposed in the area under consideration are of different ages ranging from Precambrian to early Paleozoic. Accordingly, they display various degrees of metamorphism and structural deformation. The lithostratigraphy, mode of occurrence and petrography of these rock exposures, as well as their mutual relationships, are discussed in this paper.