Curie point depth beneath the Barramiya–Red Sea coast area estimated from aeromagnetic spectral analysis

Abstract

The geothermal structure beneath of the Barramiya–Red Sea coast area of the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt has been determined using Curie point depth (CPD), which is temperature-dependent. The CPD and the surface heat flow (q) maps of such area are estimated by analyzing aeromagnetic data. Such data are low-pass-filtered and analyzed to estimate the magnetic bottom using the centroid method. The heat flow map reflects the geothermic nature of the region. However, it is suggested that the shallow Curie point temperature depth pattern depends on the tectonic regime and morphology, which continues eastwards through the Red Sea. Particularly, the coastal regions are characterized by high heat flow (83.6 mW/m2) and shallow Curie depth (22.5 km), whereas the western portion of the studied area has a lower heat flow (<50 mW/m2) and deeper Curie depth (~40 km). In addition to its bordering to the Red Sea margin, such high heat flow anomaly is associated with the increased earthquake swarms activity in the Abu Dabbab area. El-Hady (1993) attributed the swarm activity to the geothermal evolution. Also, the heat flow pattern is correlatable by the numerous results of shallow borehole temperature measurements as reported by Morgan and Swanberg (1979). A significant low heat flow extending in the northeast–southwest direction, which is associated with NE–SW large areal extent negative Bouguer gravity anomaly and NE/SW-trending belt of the deep CPD region, seems to be directly related to the surface outcrops of Precambrian older granitoids of the mountainous range of that trend.