Description of recent sediments of Nile Delta, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (Table 1-3)

The study of textural, structural, chemical, and physical properties of fine-grained recent marine sediments leads to the conclusion that only a few compositional factors are responsible for significant changes in mass physical characteristics in the upper meters below sea bottom. Fossil-induced porosity increases water content and liquid limit. It also seems to have partially influenced the plastic limit and plasticity index of calcareous sandy silts from the Red Sea and the western Gulf of Aden so that they become similar to the montmorillonite rich prodelta clays from the Nile Delta. Diagrams based on liquid limit and plasticity loose their original meaning in these cases. Activity of sediments rich in microorganisms can be higher than that of montmorillonitic clay. The shear strength-depth relationship of normally consolidated sediments is surprisingly little influenced by changes in sand or clay content and clay mineralogy. Only high lime content, submarine erosion and beginning cementation increase the strength considerably. Erosional disconformities near the present surface can be deduced from the strength-depth curve when as little as 1 or 2 m sediment have been removed. Flat or irregular strength-depth curves indicate beginning cementation and probably discontinuous sedimentation, provided the composition of the material remains in some degree constant. In our samples diagenetic pyrite, but no recristallisation of carbonates could be detected under the microscope. Underconsolidation and excess pore-water pressure, factors which tend to foster submarine slides, mud lumps, and diapiric folding, seem to be restricted Varito areas with mainly rapidly deposited, homogeneous or layered sediments. But where an abundance of burrowing organisms increases the vertical permeability of the sediment, normal consolidation and stable deposits are to be expected, at least in the upper meters below the present surface. According to 14C-determinations on calcareous microorganisms the rate of deposition of the investigated sediments seems to range from 26 to 167 cm per 1000 years.

(Table 1) Heavy mineral content in sediments of the southern Mediterranean Ridge, Nile Cone and Egyptian Shelf

Petrographic analysis of Quaternary terrigenous sand layers in eastern Mediterranean cores reveals distinct mineralogical differences between the Egyptian Shelf-Nile Cone region and the southern part of the Mediterranean Ridge. A compositionally and texturally immature suite in Ridge cores, mixed with a Nile-derived assemblage, identifies a fresh non-recycled mineral component derived from proximal igneous and metamorphic surface or near-surface exposures, probably in the south-central Ridge area rather than from distal African sources. The presence of such basement terrains would be consistent with a compressive thrust-belt origin for this part of the Mediterranean Ridge.

A Nile journal /

Mode of access: Internet.

Report upon the basin of the upper Nile with proposals for the improvement of that river

Mode of access: Internet.

The Nile projects,

Charges brought by Sir William Willcocks against Sir Murdoch MacDonald, adviser to the Egyptian Ministry of Public Works- Charges A, B, and C, of the [Nile projects] committee's criticism (articles 8 to 21) of the report, which concern Lt. Col. Kennedy.--Charge made by the committee against Sir William Willcocks.--Charge made by the committee against Lt. Col. Kennedy and Sir William Willcocks.--Appendices.

Nile notes of a Howadji /

Mode of access: Internet.

Wings over the Nile : the University of Michigan Alumni Association, October 1999 /

Mode of access: Internet.

Select specimens of natural history, collected in travels to discover the source of the Nile, in Egypt, Arabia, Abyssinia, and Nubia : Vol. V

Mode of access: Internet.

Up and down the Nile; or, Young adventurers in Africa,

Mode of access: Internet.

Bird hunting on the White Nile; a naturalist's experiences in the Soudan.

Appendices: A. List of the birds collected and observed.--B. List of the mammals.