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Volume 57 Supplement 8

Special Issue: Applications and Interpretation of Modern Magnetic Surveys

Structural mapping of Quseir area, northern Red Sea, Egypt, using high-resolution aeromagnetic data

Earth, Planets and Space volume 57, pages 761–765 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Exploration in the northern Red Sea of Egypt has had little success in locating hydrocarbon accumulation. The main exploration problems in this region are the complex block faulting and Miocene salt structures. The complex basement block structure arises from the different ages of faults and the difficulty of determining the exact age relations. In this paper, we present a case study of structural mapping using application of the Euler method to high-resolution aeromagnetic data collected in the Quseir area of the northern Red Sea of Egypt. The results indicated that the area is affected by sets of fault systems, which are mainly trending in the NNW-SSE, NW-SE and NE-SW directions. The results also delineated boundaries of a long and wide magnetic body on the offshore part of the study area. This basement intrusion is most probably related to the Red Sea rift and perhaps associated with structures higher up in the sedimentary section. As a result, the area above this anomaly is highly recommended for further oil exploration. This example illustrates that high-resolution aeromagnetic surveys can help greatly in delineating subsurface structure in the northern Red Sea of Egypt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Airborne Geophysics Department, Nuclear Materials Authority of Egypt, P.O. Box 530 Maadi, Cairo, Egypt

    Ahmed Salem & Abuelhoda Elsirafy

  2. Earth Resources Engineering Department, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki-ku, 812-8581, Fukuoka, Japan

    Essam Aboud & Keisuke Ushijima

Authors
  1. Ahmed Salem
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  2. Essam Aboud
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  3. Abuelhoda Elsirafy
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  4. Keisuke Ushijima
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ahmed Salem.

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Salem, A., Aboud, E., Elsirafy, A. et al. Structural mapping of Quseir area, northern Red Sea, Egypt, using high-resolution aeromagnetic data. Earth Planet Sp 57, 761–765 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351855

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03351855

Key words

  • Euler method
  • aeromagnetic
  • oil exploration
  • Quseir
  • Red Sea
  • Egypt