Geology of Abu Zeneima's surroundings (Western Sinai, Egypt)
In August 1999 I had the possibility to make an internship at the Sinai Manganese Company in Abu Zeneima, which is half on the way between Suez and Sharm El Sheikh, right on the border of the Gulf of Suez. About 20 kms S of Abu Zeneima, are located the oil fields of North Abu Rudeis.
The Sinai Manganese Company mines manganese ores (Mn-content up to 72%) which are found as lenses in dolomite in the so called Um Bogma Formation (Mississippian, lower Carboniferous), silica sands ( [Fe2O3]< 0.012%) in the Abu Durbah Formation (upper Carboniferous), kaolinite ( [Al2O3] up to 37%) in the Malha Formation (Lower Cretaceous) and gypsum in the Karim Formation (Miocene). I was able to visit all the mines and quarries as well as many other places around Abu Zeneima, where you can study geology at its best, as the whole desert there is one big outcrop. If you've never been to the Sinai don't hesitate to go there, you will enjoy it for sure!
Below two pictures from the surroundings of Abu Zeneima:
The left picture shows a black, basaltic, Oligocene dyke in the middle of the picture. This dyke intruded between sediments of the Oligocene (reddish sandstones) and Eocene (white, well bedded micritic limestones) to the right of the dyke and the Miocene (dark marin sandstones, transformed into a massive, 0.5 m chert layer on the contact to the dyke) on the left side of the dyke.
The right picture shows normal faults in the fossilifereous Cretaceous (probably Santonian) associated with the Red Sea Rifting, which started in Lower Miocene.
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Literature
- Rushdi, Said, The Geology of Egypt, Balkema, 1990
Egyptian geological links
- Egyptian geological survey
- Petroleum and Gas Outlook
- EREX (Earth Resources Exploration)
- Lower Miocene Nukhul Formation
Sinai & Red Sea links
- www.interknowledge.com/egypt/sinai
- www.touregypt.net/sinai.htm
- www.sinaidivers.com
- http://red-sea.com
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