Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of African Earth Sciences 61 (2011): 245-267, doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2011.06.001.
Description:
The desertic Theban hills between the edge of the alluvial plain of the Nile and the prominent cliffs at the
eastern edge of the Theban Plateau consist of imbricated tilted blocks organized in parallel groups
representing successive generations of gravitational collapse structures (or slumps). The older (distal)
generations correspond to low, rounded hills farther from the Theban cliffs. The youngest (proximal)
generation forms higher hills with young relief. Reverse faults occur at the contact between proximal and
distal tilted blocks whereas the proximal tilted blocks rest along listric faults on the substratum (Tarawan
Chalk and Esna Shale Formations) and against the Theban cliffs. We hypothesize that the emplacements
of the tilted blocks were related to major Pleistocene pluvial episodes, each marked by active flow of the
Nile River and significant recess of the Theban cliffs. Tectonic thinning and intensive erosion of the Esna
Shale Formation were determinant in shaping the Theban landscape.
Description:
National Geographic Society for its continued support
of our geological research on the Theban Mountain.
Keywords:
Gravitational collapse structures
;
Listric and reverse faults
;
Pleistocene pluvials
;
Pleistocene erosion
;
Tilted blocks
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
application/pdf
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