Paleogeographic relation of the Egyptian Northern Galala with the Tethys during the Cretaceous Period

The present study records eighteen clastic and carbonate microfacies associations within the Cretaceous sediments representing the Malha, Galala, and Adabiya Formations, which are exposed between Khashm El Galala and Wadi Qiseib areas along the eastern scarp of the Northern Galala Plateau. The lithofacies characters and the fossil content of the Malha Formation (Lower Cretaceous) suggest a probable extended shallow marine environment interrupted by moderate fluvial sedimentation with tectonic stability and moderate energy. The fine clastics and the faunal content of the lower part of the Galala Formation indicate shallow oscillating sea with much terreginous outlet in a transgressive phase with the beginning of the Cenomanian, while the limestones and dolostones of the rest of the Galala Formation and the Adabiya Formation suggest the progression of the sea during the Turonian. It was an open shelf of moderately deep warm marine conditions of low energy. Integration of the carbonate and the clastic facies analysis with the lithostratigraphic correlation of the Cretaceous sediments through the Southern and the Northern Galala Plateaux exhibited that the first Tethyan flooding had encroached the area through the Aptian-Albian. The second invasion occurred with the beginning of the Cenomanian and continued throughout the Late Cretaceous on the area of Southern Galala Plateau, which stayed in connection with the Tethys, while the area of Northern Galala Plateau, most probably, had emerged after the Turonian time or the younger Cretaceous ages till Middle Paleocene. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.