Pleistocene aquifer sediments at Sohag region, Nile valley, Egypt: a statistical approach

Document Type : Regular Articles

Authors

1 Geology Dept., Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Egypt

2 Geology department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Egypt

Abstract

Well representative detrital sandy samples from the Quaternary aquifer system of the Nile River basin at Sohag area, Egypt, were collected for the geochemical and heavy minerals investigations. Multivariate statistical techniques were applied to the obtained data. Although the heavy mineral analysis is useful in determining the provenance of the siliciclastic sediments, yet the interpretation of the data is greatly improved by determining the chemical composition of the enclosed sediments. The present study revealed that many heavy mineral species show significant variations in their distribution which may be related to their provenance. Thus, as giving greater confidence in minerals identification, but geochemical analysis of the Pleistocene sediments adds precision to the evaluation of the relative contributions of the potential source ideologies. Furthermore, multivariate statistical analyses of the geochemical and heavy minerals data from the investigated well were used to clarify the relationships between heavy metals content and heavy minerals distribution. The results revealed significant positive correlation between the well depth and the sediment contents of opaques (p<0.001), epidote (p<0.001), garnet (p<0.05), Ti (p<0.01) and Cr (p<0.01). Opaque minerals show positive significant relationship with Ti, S and to some extent Cr and OM (organic matter). Integration of multivariate statistical techniques and mineralogical analysis discriminate the studied sediments into two distinct groups. The first group consists of the older sediments of Kom Ombo and Qena formations which extended from depths of 39 to 54m and from 55 to 89m bgl (below ground level), respectively. The second group stated as younger sediments (from 5m to 38 m in depth) which ascribed to El Ghawanim Formation. The older sediments have higher content of opaques, amphiboles, epidotes, and garnet minerals as well as a higher concentration of OM, S, Mn, Fe, Ti and Cr than the younger sediments. This work considered as an introductory to study the impact of the geochemical and mineral composition of the Quaternary aquifer sediments on the quality of drinking water extracted from similar wells in the study area.

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References

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