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Geologic History of the Nile River

Herodotus wrote more than 2000 years ago: "Egypt is... the gift of the Nile".
We may say it is the gift of the Egyptians also because the Nile is flowing through other 10 states.

The Nile is an extraordinary river. It is nearly 7000 km long (and thus the longest river in the
world), drains some 3.2 million km2 and stretches approximately north to south over 358 of
latitude. It manages to flow through one of the biggest tracts of severe aridity on Earth, has
numerous cataracts and falls and yet has an immensely gentle gradient in its lowest portion.
Aswan, almost 1000 km from the sea, lies at an altitude of only 93 m above present sea level. In
spite of its great length and large catchment area, its discharge is very small by the standards of
other rivers of its size.
Egypt, during the Cenozoic Era, was drained not by a single master stream but by a succession of
at least three different, major drainage systems that competed for survival by means of gradient
advantage
the Nile from many different perspectives its impact on political history, its seasonality, its flood
and flow regimes. This competition took place in response to tectonic uplifts and sea-level
changes during the interval between the retreat of the Tethys Sea in late Eocene time (40 Ma
[million years ago]) and the birth of the modern Nile during the late Pleistocene (~25 ka).
They present a possible model of Saharan Nile evolution:
1. Oldestthe Gilf system
Consists of north-flowing consequent streams that followed the retreating Tethys Sea across
the newly emerging lands of Egypt and streams that formed on the flanks of the Red Sea
region towards the end of Eocene.
2. Middlethe Qena
Major south-flowing subsequent stream that developed along the dip slope of zone of
intensified uplift in the Red Sea Range during the early Miocene. Flowed to Sudan basin.
Confined to west by retreating scarp of the Limestone Plateau and on the east by the uplifted
rocks of the Red Sea Range.
3. Youngestthe Nile system
Came into existence as a result of the drop in Mediterranean sea-level in the late Miocene.
Formerly local drainage eroded headword into Limestone Plateau. Captured Qena system and
reversed its flow from south to north.
4. Pliocene flooding
After reopening of Straits of Gibraltar in early Pliocene sea-level rose to at least 125m.
Estuary extended to Aswan (N900 km inland).
5. Pleistocene sea-level change (including Flandrian transgression).
The date at which the complex sub-basins of the Nile were linked up is the matter of ongoing
debate. Some researchers argued that as late as mid-Tertiary times, prior to the major faulting that
produced the rift valleys of East Africa, others suggested that the first definitive evidence of Nile
flow from Ethiopia through Sudan to Egypt and the Mediterranean is so far only of Lower
Quaternary age. The date of connection is recent in the case of the Bahr el Jebel and the AlbertVictoria sections
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two questions that are fundamental to the Nile, and also to rivers around the world:
1.
2.
3.
4.
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12.
13.
14.
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16. Where does the water go?
(a) Sketch showing Gilf system (System I) at approximate end of Oligocene Epoch (Chattian Age, =24 Ma) (modified from
Issawi and McCauley, 1992). (b) Sketch showing Qena system (System II) in approximately middle Miocene time (Langian
Age, about 16 Ma) (modified from Issawi and McCauley, 1992). (c) Sketch showing Nile system (System III), which resulted
from a major drop in sea-level of Mediterranean in Messinian time (about 6 Ma) (modified from Issawi and McCauley, 1992).

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About 6 Ma, the Mediterranean Sea became cut off temporarily from the Atlantic Ocean through
tectonic (geologic) activity that closed the Straits of Gibraltar. At that time, global temperatures
higher than those today caused the 'ponded' Mediterranean to dry out almost entirely, leaving
behind several thousand meters of salts (e.g., table salt, gypsum). The Nile should have dried up
entirely at this time, but it received additional water as a result of tectonic changes in the
headwater region associated with formation of the East African Rift Valley. Most importantly,
the tectonic uplift elevated the Nile headwaters and helped direct waters towards the north, away
from the Congo basin and the Indian Ocean. That interaction between geological forces and
climate factors made the Nile we know.
There are two theories in relation to the age of an integrated Nile. The first one is that the
integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age, that the Nile basin was formerly broken into
series of separate basins, only the most northerly (the Proto Nile basin) feeding a river following
the present course of the Nile in Egypt and in the far north of the Sudan (De Heinzelin, 1968;
Butzer and Hansen, 1968; Wendorf and Schild 1976; and Said, 1981). Said (1981) stress the fact
that Egypt itself supplied most of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history. The
other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers equivalent to the Blue Nile and the
Atbara/ Takazze flowed to the Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary
times (McDougall et al., 1975; Williams and Williams, 1980).
Since then, the discovery of the Intercontinental Rift System (Salama, 1997), with massive
amounts of continental sediments supported the first hypothesis that the River Nile in Sudan was
during the Tertiary a series of separate closed basins, each basin occupying one of the major
Sudanese Rift System (Salama, 1987). These basins were not interconnected except after their
subsidence ceased and the rate of sediment deposition was enough to fill up the basins to such a
level that would allow connection to take place. The filling up of the depressions led to the
connection of the Egyptian Nile with the Sudanese Nile, which captures the Ethiopian and
Equatorial head waters during the latest stages of tectonic activities of Eastern, Central and
Sudanese Rift Systems (Salama, 1997). The connection of the different Niles occurred during the
cyclic wet periods. The River Atbara overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods which
occurred about 100 000 to 120 000 yrs B.P. The Blue Nile was connected to the main Nile during
the 70 000 80 000 yrs B.P. wet period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile
Rifts remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile some 12 500 yrs B.P.

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