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Geological Heritage As a New Kind of Natural Resource in the Siwa Oasis

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Geological Heritage As a New Kind of Natural Resource in the Siwa Oasis Journal of African Earth Sciences 144 (2018) 151e160 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of African Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jafrearsci Geological heritage as a new kind of natural resource in the Siwa Oasis, Egypt: The first assessment, comparison to the Russian South, and sustainable development issues Emad S. Sallam a, Ahmed K. Abd El-Aal b, c, Yury A. Fedorov d, Olessia R. Bobrysheva e, * Dmitry A. Ruban e, a Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Benha University, Farid Nada Street 15, Benha, 13518, Egypt b Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Najran University, King Abdulaziz Road, P.O Box 1988, Najran, 1988, Saudi Arabia c Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Assuit Branch, Assuit, 71524, Egypt d Department of Physical Geography, Ecology, and Nature Protection, Institute of Earth Sciences, Southern Federal University, Zorge Street 40, Rostov-on- Don, 344090, Russia e Department of Business in Hospitality Sphere, Higher School of Business, Southern Federal University, 23-ja linija Street 43, Rostov-on-Don, 344019, Russia article info abstract Article history: Discovering new natural resources is important for sustainable development of remote oases in arid Received 31 January 2018 regions of Africa and the Middle East. The first comprehensive assessment of geological heritage of the Received in revised form Siwa Oasis in the northwestern part of Egypt is based on field inventory of potentially unique geological 8 April 2018 features and analysis of literature data. Comparison to similar features in the other parts of Egypt and the Accepted 11 April 2018 world, including the Russian South, is essential to evaluate the uniqueness of the described geological Available online 13 April 2018 phenomena. A total of nine geological heritage types are established in the Siwa Oasis. These include stratigraphical, palaeontological, sedimentary, palaeogeographical, hydrological and hydrogeological, Keywords: Geological conservation geothermal, pedological, geomorphological, and economical types. The most high-ranked are features Facies constituting sedimentary, palaeogeographical, and hydrological and hydrogeological types. The former Saline lakes can be found in the old Shali town built from evaporite stones experienced diagenetic changes, and the Therapeutic muds latter is local manifestation of the EoceneeOligocene palaeoenvironmental transition different from the Tourism global cooling trend. Additionally, saline lakes and pools, as well as stratigraphical sections, landforms, Russian South and some other features demonstrate certain uniqueness. A series of geosites are identified in the oasis Western desert and vicinities. Taken together, the geological heritage of the Siwa Oasis is significant for conservation and exploitation for research, education, and tourism purposes. It is suggested that geological tourism there should be combined with archaeological, industrial, and "ordinary" to become efficient and to contribute to the local sustainable development. Examples from the Russian South (the Big Tambukan and Big Yashalta lakes) permit to realize that the consideration of salt and therapeutic mud resource indicates on the higher value of the discussed geological heritage features of the Siwa Oasis. Moreover, this resource, which is of big uniqueness itself, can contribute substantially to tourism development on the basis of unique geological phenomena. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction 2011; Wimbledon and Smith-Meyer, 2012; Gray, 2013; Henriques and Brilha, 2017; Reynard and Brilha, 2017). This term specifies A term geological heritage has been used widely in three past separate kind of natural resource (Gray, 2011, 2012; Prosser, 2013; decades to define geological features valuable to the society Ruban, 2017) that can (and should) be explored and then exploi- because of their uniqueness (Prosser et al., 2006; Henriques et al., ted sustainably in all countries. On the one hand, geological heri- tage is a part of natural heritage that deserves conservation because it bears important information about unique geological phenom- ena. On the other hand, geological heritage can be used for the * Corresponding author. purposes of geological education and tourism, i.e., for social and E-mail addresses: [email protected] (E.S. Sallam), [email protected] economic benefits. (D.A. Ruban). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2018.04.008 1464-343X/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 152 E.S. Sallam et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 144 (2018) 151e160 Unfortunately, our present knowledge of geological heritage is part of the oasis lies below sea level with the lowest point of À18 m. strongly tied to Europe and South East Asia, and it is incomplete in The Siwa Depression is bounded by the Qattara Depression from the case of Africa. Egypt is not exclusion, although previous studies the east, the Jaghbub Depression from the west, the Great Sand Sea of El-Asmar et al. (2012), AbdelMaksoud and Hussien (2016), from the south, and the El-Diffa Plateau from the north. In the oasis, Plyusnina et al. (2016), Sallam and Ruban (2017), AbdelMaksoud there are many isolated hills forming buttes and mesas, including et al. (2018), and Sallam et al. (2018a, b) revealed its outstanding Gebel Siwa, Gebel El-Kosha, Qaret Khamsia, Gebel El-Dakror, etc. richness in unique geological features. Particularly, it has been (Fig. 2). The Siwa Oasis is covered by a variety of aeolian sands and found that many unique and spectacular geological phenomena sabkhas. The distinctive natural elements of the Siwa Oasis are concentrate in desert oases. Important stratigraphical sections, saline lakes (Table 1), which receive water from natural springs and palaeontological localities, well-preserved palaeogeographical from agricultural drainage. features, peculiar landforms, etc. can be found there. Moreover, the The Siwa Oasis has a complex geological setting (Fig. 1c). It is very occurrence in oasis facilitates conservation of this geological located within unstable tectonic belt in northern Egypt (Said, 1990). heritage, as well as its utility for education and tourism. This is a structurally controlled sedimentary basin (Issawi et al., The present study focuses on the geological heritage of the large 2009). The exposed sedimentary succession in the Siwa Depres- and historically well known Siwa Oasis in the northwest of Egypt sion ranges in age from the Middle Eocene to the Quaternary (Said, (Fig. 1a). The field investigations and the bibliographical survey 1962; Rabeh, 2012; Abdel-Fattah et al., 2013; Osman and Orabi, permit undertaking the first comprehensive assessment of this 2017)(Fig. 3). precious natural resource. The urgency of this study is dictated as The Eocene rocks crop out in small depressions, namely El-Qara by necessity of better understanding of the geological heritage of and El-Arag in the north- and southeastern parts of the Siwa Oasis, Egypt and entire Africa, as by importance of finding new, geology- respectively (Fig. 1c). These rocks are represented by the Mokattam related resources for sustainable development of remote oases in Formation (Lutetian) at the base and the Upper Hamra Formation arid regions. Moreover, the specific geological heritage features (Priabonian) above (Fig. 3). These formations are mainly composed available in the Siwa Oasis have to be compared with similar fea- of foraminiferal siliciclastic-carbonate rocks deposited in shallow- tures available in the other parts of the world. Particularly, lakes of marine reefal environments (Osman and Orabi, 2017). The Oligo- the semi-arid to arid zone of the Russian South are suitable for this cene rocks in the Siwa Oasis are represented by marine facies (El- purpose. Qara Formation) in the north and fluvio-marine facies (Qatrani Formation) in the south (Osman and Orabi, 2017). The El-Qara Formation consists mainly of grey, small-scale tabular cross- 2. Geological setting bedded foraminiferal limestones. The Qatrani Formation is repre- sented by green glauconitic shales and calcareous sandstones 0 0 The Siwa Oasis (centered at 29 12 N and 25 53 E) is a natural containing shell fragments and silicified wood. depression located in the northwest of the Western Desert of Egypt, The Miocene rocks are widely exposed in the northern part of near the EgypteLibya border (Fig. 1a and b). Its area is ~1730 km2.A Fig. 1. Geographical location (a), geosites (b), and geological setting (c) of the Siwa Oasis and the adjacent areas (geological map is based on CONOCO and EGPC, 1988). Labels AeG on b mark some geosites mentioned in this paper. E.S. Sallam et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 144 (2018) 151e160 153 limestones. It was accumulated in a shallow-marine environment (Abdel-Fattah et al., 2013). It yields rich Middle Miocene macro- and microfauna. The Marmarica Formation is subdivided into three members, namely the Oasis Member at the base, the Siwa Escarp- ment Member in the midst, and the El-Diffa Plateau Member at the top (Gindy and El-Askary, 1969; Said, 1990; Jones et al., 2006; Abdel-Fattah et al., 2013). The Pliocene sediments are not recorded in the Siwa Oasis. The Quaternary sediments are represented there by sabkha, salts, sand dunes, and sand and gravel sheets, which cover the southern and western parts of the oasis (Fig. 1c). 3. Methodology The available approaches of geological heritage assessment differ (e.g., Ruban, 2010; Ellis, 2011; Fassoulas et al.,
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