ML138419
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Subject 1: (Interview). Subtitle: Father Angelos. Timecode In: 00:00:04. Timecode out: 00:05:43. Subject 2: (Environmental Recording). Subtitle: Desert ambi. Timecode In: 00:07:08. Timecode out: 00:11:32. Subject 3: (Interview). Subtitle: Farouk El-Baz. Timecode In: 00:11:57. Timecode out: 01:35:48. Notes: Hydrogeology. Habitat: Desert; Desert, Urban, ; Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Split track; Stereo. Water piece tape log - 4. EGYPT DAT # 3 2ND 2-WAY W/FATHER ANGELLUS AT THE WELL. 00:00:30 -AQ -what happened at founding of monastery? when monastery founded, there was a church, this well and monk cells. This well is also called well of martyrs, because during raid that killed 49 monks, the killers washed their swords in this well. Presently being purified and cleaned. 00:01:45 -AQ -so fell into disuse? Yes, but being cleaned up now. still gives water. information on number of wells. 00:03:30 -AQ -any wells runs dry? No, until now nothing runs dry. Then describes day. 00:06:15 -gen'l courtyard ambi ...nice, birdy, but not too much 00:07:30 -desert ambi 00:08:43 -wind up. 00:09:00 -reset levels. 00:09:50 -wind up...good. (very light but there) good right through 00:11:30. Farouk El-Baz, Interviewed for NGS/NPR Radio Expeditions INTERVIEWER: Let's uh let's begin here because I know we we want to talk about this and that is the re¬lationship between the water that we see in the Nile River and the water that is a surprise to us to us who don't know about water, because we go out to a place like Elnotun and and uh the monks say I dig down three meters and here's this water. / And you take us out to the great empty desert, nothing around, and you have a crew drilling there, pfft, river in the desert. How is the water related? FE: In uh the western desert of Egypt at the border of the Nile desert, the source of that water is the present day delta. The uh waday farok which means the Empty Valley, where the... is in Empty Valley, which sits just west of Waday Notu, and both of them are depressions. The reason for the fact that when you dig just a few meters you find water is that they are depressions in the desert floor. The water from the present day delta seeps through rock, the uppermost surface layer is exceedingly porous, I personally believe because it is an an¬cestral delta of the Nile because we've seen that shape of the delta in satellite images and went into the field and looked at it and we see these rocks right on the surface little pebbles that make a desert pavement of broken fragments of rock that do not occur locally at all. They must have been brought by the river Nile from deep in Africa from Aswan and beyond. And the combination between the fact that you see gravel and beneath it is sand mixed with silt in the shape of a delta con¬firm to us that this is an ancient delta of the Nile. Deltake deposit, meaning the stuff that is that makes the delta are very porous materials. And allows water to go right through. So when you have the present day delta with a great deal of water use that sits on top of an ancestral delta of the Nile that is very porous, all of the water that comes from the Nile channel the Nile canals the drainage canals the navigation canals and also the fields. Everything that seeps through the sur¬face and goes down below actually goes straight into the porous rock of the ancestral delta and moves away from the pressure source where the water is so it there's a gradient away from the Nile Delta and as additional waters are uh go through the uh the rock and therefore if you are west of the delta and you dig a few meters, you are going to find ground water, even very close to the surface. And as you go further and further you will find additional resources of ground water the vast majority of it comes from the recent seepage of water from present day delta. INT: When yo... (Notes truncated)
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Archival information
- Cataloged
- 11 Jan 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 11 Jan 2005 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 11 Jan 2005 - Ben Brotman