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336941

GEOCHEMICAL, NATURAL RADIOGENIC AND ISOTOPIC IMPLICATIONS FOR NUBIAN SANDSTONE GROUNDWATER ASSESSMENT IN KHARGA OASIS, WESTERN DESERT, EGYPT

Article

Last updated: 01 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Water

Abstract

Groundwater in the Kharga Oasis, located in the Western Desert of Egypt, is an essential resource for the local population. The Oasis is fed by the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer (NSA) of the Cretaceous age. This aquifer is one of the world's largest reservoirs, which provides fresh water for drinking, irrigation, domestic use, and industrial purposes. The NSA possesses four bearing zones; Zone A, Zone B, Zone C, and Zone D, which are separated by clay confining layers. The total penetration depth ranges from 12.5 to 800 meters, and the aquifer is underlain by granitic and basement rocks. The groundwater temperature ranges between 18 to 36.8°C, where high temperatures have been detected in the deeper zones (C and D), indicating geothermal activity. Generally, the quality of NSA water is fresh to brackish water types; however, the deeper aquifer zones (C and D) mainly contain freshwater. The concentrations of the trace elements and the natural radioactive nuclei (Rb, Pb, 232Th, 238U, and Sr) in the NSA waters are insignificant and far below the permissible drinking limits, and they are mainly coming from the geogenic source due to leaching of aquifer matrix. The stable isotopes (δ18O and δ2H) show great insights for recharge and salinization sources. The δ18O ranges from -11.96 to -6.11‰, while δ2H ranges between -83.5 to -67.7‰, indicating that the groundwater in the NSA is fossil water (paleo-meteoric origin) as the aquifer was recharged during the paleo heavy pluvial periods. Accordingly, the groundwater in Kharga Oasis is a paleo nonrenewable resource whose quality has been threatened mainly by geogenic natural pollution, agricultural activity, and over-exploitation.

DOI

10.21608/ejdr.2024.251259.1158

Keywords

Hydrogeochemistry, stable isotopes, radioactive nuclei, geochemical modeling, Kharga Oasis

Authors

First Name

Mustafa

Last Name

Eissa

MiddleName

Abdullah

Affiliation

Department of Hydrogeochemistry, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

Email

mustafa.eissa@drc.gov.eg

City

Cairo

Orcid

0000-0002-2924-3220

Volume

73

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

44482

Issue Date

2023-12-01

Receive Date

2023-11-27

Publish Date

2023-12-01

Page Start

629

Page End

653

Print ISSN

1687-8043

Online ISSN

2356-9875

Link

https://ejdr.journals.ekb.eg/article_336941.html

Detail API

https://ejdr.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=336941

Order

336,941

Type

Original Article

Type Code

117

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Desert Research

Publication Link

https://ejdr.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

GEOCHEMICAL, NATURAL RADIOGENIC AND ISOTOPIC IMPLICATIONS FOR NUBIAN SANDSTONE GROUNDWATER ASSESSMENT IN KHARGA OASIS, WESTERN DESERT, EGYPT

Details

Type

Article

Created At

23 Dec 2024