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Late Cretaceous–Early Paleogene tectonic events at Farafra-Abu Minqar Stretch, Western Desert, Egypt: results from calcareous plankton

  • S. I. Geology of Africa
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Abstract

This work depends on integrated high-resolution calcareous plankton nannofossil and foraminiferal biostratigraphic analyses for three Upper Cretaceous-Lower Paleogene successions at Farafra-Abu Minqar area, Western Desert, Egypt. These sections are distributed in a north-south geologic profile as follows: El Aqabat, North Gunna, and Abu Minqar. Lithostratigraphically, four formations are recorded in the study area, namely, Khoman (at base), Dakhla, Tarawan, and Esna (at top). In the north at El Aqabat section, Khoman Formation (carbonate facies) is only represented which changes partially toward the south to Dakhla Formation (siliciclastic facies). In the extreme south at Abu Minqar section, it changes completely into siliciclastic facies of Dakhla Formation. Biostratigraphically, seven calcareous nannofossil and eleven planktonic foraminiferal zones represent the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene are identified. Based on the occurrence or missing of these zones accompanied with the field criteria resulted in detecting four tectonic events. These tectonic events took place at the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg), the Danian/Selandian (D/S), the Selandian/Thanetian (S/T), and the Paleocene/Eocene (P/E) boundaries. These tectonic events are related to the impact of the Syrian Arc System. Four sequence boundaries (SB1, SB2, SB3, and SB4) are defined in the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene sequence in the Farafra-Abu Minqar area.

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  • 04 September 2018

    The article which was recently published, contained error. The figures, plates and figure captions were interchanged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    Mahmoud Faris

  2. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt

    Nageh A. Obaidalla, Amr A. Metwally & Abdelhamid M. Salman

  3. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Shibin Al Kawm, Egypt

    Amr S. Zaky

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  1. Mahmoud Faris
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  2. Nageh A. Obaidalla
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Correspondence to Amr A. Metwally.

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The original version of this article was revised: the article which was recently published, contained error. The figures, plates and figure captions were interchanged.

This article is part of the Topical Collection on New Advances and Research results on the Geology of Africa

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Faris, M., Obaidalla, N.A., Metwally, A.A. et al. Late Cretaceous–Early Paleogene tectonic events at Farafra-Abu Minqar Stretch, Western Desert, Egypt: results from calcareous plankton. Arab J Geosci 11, 429 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-018-3787-9

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