Jornal de Geologia e Geofísica
Acesso livre

Abstrato

Sand Sea in Northeast Africa and Future Sustainable Development

Ahmed Fawzy Yousef*

There are six sand seas in Northeast Africa; the biggest is the Great Sand Sea (GSS) which is located around the border between Egypt and Libya. The surrounding oases are completely dependent on groundwater as a source of water, with the decline of water levels and the countries’ need to land reclamation to save the shortage of food, investigating the possibilities of groundwater accumulation in GSS will influence the future development. There is more than 3000 m thick of groundwater accumulation reaches belonging Nubian Sandstone multilayer system and Post Eocene aquifers. The regional groundwater flow is from SW to NE owing to structural elements. The average estimated groundwater storage in the Nubian Aquifer is ^~94 × 10¹² m³ and ^~ 12.5 × 10¹² m³ in other aquifers. Exploration of GSS in eastern Sahara and similar desert regions will change the future of the world.