Manafa

The Red Sea is a textbook case of a modern-day oceanic rift basin forming as a result of continental break-up. A characteristic feature in the central and northern Red Sea are more than a dozen isolated bathymetric depressions, “deeps”, filled with salt brines, derived from leaching of the Miocene salt deposits underlying the entire Red Sea. The Atlantis II Deep is the largest basin of this type in the axial rift zone of the Red Sea. A topographic depression enclosing a volume of an estimated 17 km³ at water depths from 1900 to 2200 m,  the Atlantis II Deep contains layered fluids with temperatures of up to 66°C and salinities of up to 27%. Beneath the brines up to 30 m of fine-grained metalliferous sediments have been accumulating for the past 30000 years. These sediments are characterized by extremely high concentrations of metals such as zinc, copper, silver, and gold.

From 1969 to 1979 numerous expeditions recovered more than 500 sediment cores from the Atlantis II Deep as part of an exploration effort subscribed by the Saudi-Sudanese Red Sea Commission.Based on the data available at that time rough estimates indicated resources in excess of 100 million tons., making Atlantis II Deep the largest known marine deposit of this type. The German company PREUSSAG carried out the exploration campaign, but closed its marine technology subsidiary in 1987 and donated cores and relevant documentation to GEOMAR. In an effort to make this data available for study today, we are digitizing essential parts of the >50000 page documentation. Maps and data are consolidated into a Geographical Information System (GIS) that relates the digitized data with their according spatial component. A tremendous amount of information needs to be assimilated, such as geochemical, biological and oceanographic data that will be essential for future studies to assess the impact of exploitation.

Scope of work:

• complete transfer of all analog (printed) information from PREUSSAG Reports for the Saudi-Sudanese Commission (scanning, OCR of >50000 pages)
• creation of relational database and set-up of GIS (ARC-GIS) to facilitate the geostatistical and geotechnical analysis
• redescription, relogging, and conservation of existing core material