This award is to support cooperative research between a U.S. team headed by Dr. Richard Parizek, Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania and Dr. Abdel Raouf Abul Hassan, Geological Survey of Egypt and Mining Authority, Cairo, Egypt. Shallow groundwater levels, coupled with concentrations of salt, dissolved solids and biological compounds, are causing rapid and significant deterioration or monuments and other structures at numerous locations in Egypt. At Hierakonopolis, a variety of monuments and materials are being degraded. The problem of rapid deterioration has become more acute since the initiation of new irrigation practices in 1995. Year-round flood irrigation of the fields ensures a uniformly high water table <1 to 1.5m below the surface. A major irrigation canal that is being constructed has reached within 1.5km of the Temp-Town site on the lowest Nile terrace to the south. Its imminent presence even closer to the site, along with rapid reclamation of surrounding upland desert areas, is likely to cause further damage at Hierakonopolis. This project will focus on development of practical methods to characterize and mitigate the effects of rapid deterioration of monuments and other structures. The Temple-Town Hierakonopolis site is the model for this study because of the knowledge of its groundwater system gained through recent studies led by the PIs. This study will build on a drilling and coring project undertaken in January 2003; it includes additional water quality measures, limited chemical testing, hydrological testing and a local seismic survey for each borehole, prior to installation of up to eight new deeper holes to monitor groundwater flow rates and directions at depth. Additional core samples obtained in 2003 and new cores will be logged to establish both an archaeological and lithological stratigraphic column. An attempt will be made to date any suitable horizons. The drilling campaign is expected to recover core through the Nile alluvium into bedrock at 100m depth, and further define the distribution of potential aquifers and the clay confining beds found to date.
Scope and broad impact: The proposed study will use an integrated combination of geological, geophysical, geochemical and hydrologic methods to develop and validate a flow model for the Hierakonopolis site that can be used to design a practical mitigation plan. If possible, a separate but related set of analyses would be made in the U.S. of the biological compounds that cause discoloration and deterioration of the base of monuments and other structures at locations such as Hierakonopolis, Edfu, and Esna. These and earlier findings, all incorporated into a large GIS database, will be integrated to develop a groundwater flow model and practical mitigation strategies for the Hierakonopolis site. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.
