The Nubia Sandstone Nubia Group , Western Desert, Egypt An Overview

No information was given about the outcropping of the Nubia sandstone in the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert of Egypt and actually very scarce and insufficient information has been written on the geology of the Great Sand Sea. Since 1931 the Great Sand Sea has been described as being formed of many parallel longitudinal sand dunes which cover ~72000 km² and are bounded in the south by the Gilf El Kebir Nubia Sandstone Plateau and in the north by Siwa Oasis. However, recently it has been found by the author and his collaborators that the rock units exposed on surface in the Great Sand Sea are belonging to the younger members of the fluviatile Cretaceous Nubia Sandstone Group. They are not covered by younger marine consolidated deposits but only with a thin veneer of accumulations of free sands originating from the disintegration and breakdown of the Nubia Sandstone bedrock, thus obscuring the original bedrock. The area exhibits a long history of predominantly continental sandstone accumulation and continuous subsiding during the geologic history so that the sequence attains a thickness more than 3500m in the subsurface. The exposed Nubia Sandstone rocks have been formed in different geomorphologic features such as longitudinal parallel sandstone ridges separated by wide flat sandstone tracks, sandstone plateaus and domes, sandstone depressions, plains and valleys. These results make it necessary to review the surface distribution and the lithostratigraphic change both stratigraphic and geographic of the Nubia Group in the Western Desert of Egypt. Khaled Abdel-Kader Ouda "The Nubia Sandstone (Nubia Group), Western Desert, Egypt: An Overview" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-3 , April 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd38760.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/geology/38760/the-nubia-sandstone-nubia-group-western-desert-egypt-an-overview/khaled-abdelkader-ouda