Nile delta

Question 1

Why is it low energy

Answer 1

The rate of fluvial deposition has exceeded the rate of marine deposition for over 3000 years

Question 2

How has this changed

Answer 2

Due to the influence of both physical and human factors

Question 3

How long is the Nile

Answer 3

6650 km

Question 4

What is the catchment size

Answer 4

Greater than 3,000,000 km²

Question 5

What is the average discharge

Answer 5

Less than 3000 m³ per second

Question 6

Where is the source

Answer 6

Ethiopia

Question 7

What is the annual average sediment yield for the Nile in Ethiopia

Answer 7

4.26 tons per hectare per year

Question 8

What are the three different planes

Answer 8

The foreshore plain, frontal plain and Nile delta

Question 9

What is the coastal plain

Answer 9

The coastal plane is on the northern part of the Delta and runs parallel to the Mediterranean coast line

Question 10

What is the foreshore plain

Answer 10

Does elongated ridges, running near parallel to the present shoreline, it alternate with lagoons, salt marshes and alluvial deposits in the depression between them

Question 11

What is the frontal plane

Answer 11

It is south of the foreshore plane, has scattered around eroded limestone outcrops and clay deposit

Question 12

Description of the sandy zone

Answer 12

Composed of a variety of different formations such as sheets, dunes and hammocks

Question 13

Where does it split into distributaries

Answer 13

Cairo, 160 km inland

Question 14

How deep are the deposit

Answer 14

9 m Aswan, 9.6m at cairo

Question 15

What is occurring at the front of the delta

Answer 15

Wave action in the Mediterranean redistribute the sediment and forms a series of curved barrier bars, which close of segments of the Mediterranean sea to form lagoons. The lagoons in then form a silt environment, it then becomes filled with fine sediment

Question 16

What is the direction of sediment

Answer 16

 East

Question 17

Direction of the prevailing wind

Answer 17

Northwest

Question 18

What are two near shore features

Answer 18

Underwater sand bars and long crescentic bar

Question 19

Why are parallel sandbars found here

Answer 19

They are generated by the dominant eastward longshore drift of sediment

Question 20

Why are crescents bars found at Alexandria

Answer 20

Due to rip currents and negligible longshore drift

Question 21

What has affected the sediment budget

Answer 21

The building of the Aswan dam

Question 22

How’s the sediment budget been affected

Answer 22

Rapid reduction from 120,000,000 tons a year to only trace amounts today

Question 23

What changes have occurred as a result of the dam

Answer 23

Accelerated erosion and rates of coastal retreat as high as 1.48 m per year

Question 24

What are the factor has affected the sediment budget and how

Answer 24

Rising sea levels in the Mediterranean of 1.2 mm per year I’ve also contributed to hire erosion rates as deeper water produces large waves with higher amounts of energy and therefore they reach further inland