The Sedimentologic and Geomorphologic Provinces of the Nile Fan

The Nile Fan in the southeastern Mediterranean is a large, deep-sea sedimentary fan deposit that started to accumulate in the early Pliocene receiving its material from one primary source—the Nile River. The Nile River is 6,800 km long; it drains a basin of 3 million km2, and has an average annual water discharge of 86 billion m3 (Said, 1981). Prior to construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1964, the Nile discharged approximately 120 million m3 of sediment annually to the southeastern Mediterranean basin (Said, 1981). Due to the Aswan High Dam and the intensive irrigation system in the Nile Delta area, the present rate of sedimentary discharge is negligible (A. Golik, personal communication, 1990). The Nile has constructed a large alluvial plain, covering an area of 22,000 km2. Herodotus, in the fifth century B.C., was the first to apply the term “delta” to this plain of triangular shape.