Cenozoic to Cretaceous paleomagnetic dataset from Egypt: New data, review and global analysis

Abstract

Different phases of igneous activity took place in Egypt during the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic and oriented samples were collected from three Cenozoic localities (Baharya oasis in the Western Desert, Abu Had in the Eastern Desert and Quseir along the Red Sea coast), and four Cretaceous localities (Toshki & Abu Simbel south of Aswan, and Shalaten & Abu Shihat along the Red Sea coast). Rock magnetic properties of the samples indicate magnetite and titanomagnetite as the main carrier of the remanent magnetization. Following stepwise demagnetization, characteristic remanent directions were identified only for 62% of the samples, a fairly low rate for that type of samples, and 8 new paleomagnetic poles were calculated. All our Cenozoic poles fall clearly off Master Polar Wander Paths proposed for South Africa. Therefore, all paleomagnetic results, previously published for Egypt, were compiled from Cretaceous to Quaternary. The published poles largely overlap, blurring the Egyptian Apparent Polar Wander Path. A new analysis at the site level was then carried out. Only poles having a kappa larger than 50 were selected, and new pole positions were calculated by area and by epoch, when at least 3 sites were available. Even though the selection drastically reduced the number of considered poles, it allows definition of a reliable Cenozoic apparent polar wander trend for Egypt that differs from the South African Master Polar Wander Path by about 10-15°. If the Cretaceous igneous poles are in good agreement with the rest of the African data, the sedimentary poles plot close to the Cenozoic portion of the South African

Palaeomagnetism of Bahariya iron ores and their genetic implications, North Western Desert, Egypt

“…When we compared the resultant palaeomagnetic pole from the Friable and Hard Ores with the other poles of the Eocene age in Egypt (Table 6) and (Figure 16), we found that there is a good agreement between them and the resultant pole is of primary origin (Perrin and Saleh 2018).…”