974. PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERAL BIOSTRATIGRAPHY OF UPPER PALEOCENE TO MIDDLE EOCENE SEQUENCES IN THE EASTERN DESERT AREA, EGYPT

Abstract

The studied sections are located in the Eastern Desert area, along the El Sheikh Fadl road running from Ras Gharib on the west bank of the Gulf of Suez to El-Sheikh Fadl village on the east side of the Nile River. Rocks exposed in this area comprise five lithological units, the Esna (shale), Thebes (limestone and chert), Maghagha (marl and limestone), Qarara (shale and sandstone) and El Fashn (limestone) Formations, and can be divided into the following five planktonic foraminiferal biozones; the Planorotalites pseudomenardii Zone, Acarinina aspensis Zone, Globigerinatheka subconglobata Zone, Morozovella lehneri Zone and Truncorotaloides rohri Zone in ascending order. Although some zonal marker species have not been found in the investigated area, these zones are considered to correspond, respectively, to Zone P4, Zones P9-10, lower Zone P11, upper Zone P11, Zones P12-14 of the standard zonation established in low latitude areas. Therefore, the Esna Formation is assigned to the late Paleocene, the Thebes Formation to the late Paleocene to latest early Eocene, and the Maghagha and Qarara Formations to the middle Eocene. The limestone-marl Maghagha Formation was deposited in the west, simultaneously with the sandstone-shale Qarara Formation in the east.