2D RAY-TRACING AND SEISMIC VELOCITY STRUCTURE MODELING WITHIN specific AREA OF THE NILE DELTA, EGYPT

M. M. Attia⁽¹⁾ and A. M. Abudeif ⁽¹⁾

(Received 22 January 2004; accepted 14 September 2004)

⁽¹⁾Geology Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Sohag 82524, Egypt. (Email: abdo_m_abudeif@hotmail.com)

Abstract:The purpose of this investigation was to obtain information about the nature of the shallow sedimentary layers of the Quaternary depositional styles in the Nile Delta by using new processing techniques. Seven reversed shallow seismic refraction profiles conducted by Essawy (2001) in the northern part of Egypt, as a part of the Nile Delta were re-interpreted. New analysis of these refraction profiles using travel time tomography methods and 2D ray-tracing modeling reveals that the area consists of homogeneous layers. A 3D model has been constructed to describe the shape of the layer boundaries and the presence of an anomaly representing buried archaeological relics below the ground surface. The distributions of P-wave velocity of these layers concordant with their thickness are much similar to the Quaternary Nile Valley layers.