Aeromagnetic data interpretation of east Qattara Depression, Northwest Desert, Egypt

Abstract

The study area is located at the east of Qattara Depression at the north of the Western Desert of Egypt. The study area contains Abu Gharadig basin, which is the most petroliferous basin in the Egyptian Western Desert. Only three exploratory wells are presented in the study area, showing a thick sediment section overlying basement rocks. Magnetic data have been frequently used in geophysical exploration. Aeromagnetic data are mainly utilized to estimate the depth to the magnetic basement as well as to delineate the possible structures of the study area. The depth to magnetic basement has been estimated using the analytical solution of exponential equations obtained from the Fourier transformation of magnetic data, assuming multi-prisms. The depths obtained from this technique vary from 0.70 to 2.91 km with an average depth of 2.08 km. Local phase filters have been mainly used as edges detector where the possible occurrences structures can be delineated. Hyperbolic tilt angle, second-order tilt angle, and normalized total horizontal derivative (TDX) provide the best results for delineating the possible structures, showing the possible contacts within the basement of the study area. The edge enhancement filters show that the study area has been affected by different structural trends taking E-W, NE-SW, NNE-SSW, N-S, and ENE-WSW directions.