Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257

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Geomorphology
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An integrated remote sensing and GIS analysis of the Kufrah Paleoriver,

Eastern Sahara
Eman Ghoneim a,⁎, Michael Benedetti a, Farouk El-Baz b
a
Department of Geography and Geology, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd, Wilmington, MA 28403, USA
b
Center for Remote Sensing, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A combined remote sensing (optical and radar imagery) and GIS (hydrologic network delineation) analysis
Received 28 June 2011 allows mapping of the Kufrah Paleoriver of Libya and sheds light on its geomorphic evolution during the
Received in revised form 23 October 2011 Neogene. The Kufrah system, which is now largely buried beneath the windblown sands of the Eastern
Accepted 26 October 2011
Sahara, drained an area of about 236,000 km 2 in central and southern Libya. The river discharged across a
Available online 3 November 2011
large inland delta to the Al-Jaghbub depression in northern Libya, and ultimately through the Sirt Basin to
Keywords:
the Mediterranean Sea. Radar imagery reveals buried features of the landscape including drainage divides, lo-
Radar cations of possible stream capture, deeply-incised valleys, and the distal margins of the inland delta. Previous
SRTM studies have shown that the Kufrah Paleoriver is the successor of the Sahabi River, which drained most of
Great Sand Sea central Libya during the late Tertiary. Satellite imagery supports the concept of large-scale drainage rearran-
Great Sahara gement in the Quaternary, driven by tectonic subsidence that diverted streamflow and sediment discharge
Inland delta away from the Sahabi basin toward the inland delta of the lower Kufrah basin. Paleochannels crossing the
Paleolakes delta suggest that at various times during the Quaternary, the Kufrah Paleoriver either drained
externally through the deeply-incised Sahabi Paleochannel to the Mediterranean Sea, or drained internally to
paleolakes in the Al-Jaghbub depression. Thick alluvial deposits on the delta and lake margins likely provided
a major sediment source to build the Great Sand Sea, which covers the region today. The southwestern branch
of the Kufrah drainage is aligned with an elongated trough that connects to the Amatinga River system in
Chad. Thus the Kufrah watershed may have served as an outlet from Megalake Chad to the Mediterranean Sea
during humid phases of the Neogene. If so, the combined Amatinga/Kufrah system may have served as one of
the proposed natural corridors used by human and animal populations to cross the Sahara during the Pleistocene.
These findings hold promise for modeling past lake levels and paleoclimates, locating groundwater sources in the
region, and exploring for reservoirs of oil and natural gas in the region.
© 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 2009). The present study is a continuation of such efforts, where it

The Great Sahara of North Africa is known to have undergone
major hydrological fluctuations and was vegetated at times in the
past. During wet phases, the region presently occupied by the Sahara
was green, contained forests, grasslands, and permanent rivers and
lakes. When the wet periods ended at about 5.5 ka, the Sahara was
transformed into a hyperarid desert (De Menocal et al., 2000) and
its original surface and alluvium-filled valleys and lake basins were
totally covered with windblown sand sheets and dune fields. Over
the past three decades scientists have used both passive and active
remote sensing to reveal previously unknown buried river courses,
large lakes, geologic structures, and possible Stone Age occupation
sites (e.g., Roth and Elachi, 1975; McCauley et al., 1982; El-Baz et al.,
2000; Robinson et al., 2006; Ghoneim et al., 2007; Paillou et al.,
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 1 910 962 2795; fax: + 1 910 962 7077.
E-mail address: ghoneime@uncw.edu (E. Ghoneim).
is particularly concerned with the past fluvial landscape in the
eastern part of the Great Sahara.
The study area covers large portions of eastern Libya, western
Egypt, northeastern Chad and northwestern Sudan. The subsurface
geology of the area is not well known, but the region as a whole is
mapped as continental sandstones of the Cambro-Ordovician to
early Cretaceous (Hesse et al., 1987) overlain by Quaternary aeolian
sands (Fig. 1). The Nubian Sandstone of this basin is made of conti-
nental Mesozoic sediments that rest uncomfortably over Paleozoic
rocks (Bellini and Massa, 1980). The Paleozoic sequence has a thick-
ness of 1300–2000 m; the Lower Cretaceous sediments are some
1000–1500 m thick and form the surface bedrock of most of the
study area.
During the Late Miocene, rainfall was abundant over North Africa
as a result of the northward migration of the Intertropical Conver-
gence Zone (ITCZ) (Gladstone et al., 2007). Runoff from the study
area reached the Eastern Mediterranean via rivers that no longer
run today, but whose channel courses are relatively well preserved

0169-555X/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.10.025
 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257
Fig. 1. Geologic map of the study area. Rectangular box indicates the area shown in Fig. 2.
(Griffin, 2002, 2006). During the late Messinian age of the Miocene
epoch, the Mediterranean experienced a phase of severe desiccation
and salinity fluctuations known as the Messinian Salinity Crisis
(MSC) (Hsu et al., 1973). The desiccation is thought to have been
triggered by restriction of the flow between the Mediterranean and
the Atlantic due to tectonic closure of the Strait of Gibraltar (Hsu et
al., 1977). The Messinian desiccation caused a lowering of the sea
level that led to down-cutting and extension of Libyan river systems
during humid periods (Barr and Walker, 1973).
A combination of seismic investigations and shallow drilling near
the Gulf of Sirt (Barr and Walker, 1973) revealed a canyon some
396 m deep and ~5 km wide cut into Miocene limestone. This canyon,
named in this study the Sahabi Canyon, is thought to have been incised
at the time of the drawdown of the Mediterranean. The tremendously
rich vertebrate fauna (mammals, reptiles, birds, and fishes; Boaz,
1987) and the very large crocodiles found in the paleochannel confirms
the existence of a large freshwater riparian corridor in the past (Hecht,
1987). The presence of this large incised channel adjacent to the Gulf of
Sirt strongly suggests it was the lowermost reach of a major river
system. This paleoriver has been named the Sahabi River (Griffin,
2002); it drained most and perhaps all of Libya during the late Miocene
(Drake et al., 2008).
The width and depth of the Sahabi Canyon suggest a large contrib-
uting drainage basin. Since there is no obvious surface linkage to the
ancestral Niger River to the west, or the Ethiopian highlands to the
east, the Sahabi River was proposed to have been an outflow channel
243
of Megalake Chad (Griffin, 2002, 2006), which occupied a large Neo-
gene subsidence basin (Genik, 1993) to the south during humid
periods of the Late Miocene (Griffin, 2002). The proposed link between
the Sahabi River and Megalake Chad is supported by geomorphological
evidence for an ancient river (the Amatinga Valley) that flowed north-
ward away from the megalake (Griffin, 2002, 2006). The presence of
fossils of similar semi-aquatic anthracotheres in both the Sahabi Canyon
in the Sirt Basin and Megalake Chad deposits (Lihoreau et al., 2006) also
supports the connection.
Intense neotectonic activity in the Tibesti Volcanic Province (TVP)
began perhaps as early as the Lower Miocene and continued until the
Quaternary (Furon, 1963; Gourgaud and Vincent, 2004). Uplift of the
eastern flank of the TVP caused the course of the Sahabi River to shift
east toward the sinking Kufrah basin. Several studies (e.g., Pachur,
1993; McCauley et al., 1995; El-Baz, 1998; Ghoneim et al., 2007;
Drake et al., 2008; Paillou et al., 2009) have identified large relict
channels draining northward toward the Kufrah Oasis. It has been
suggested since the late 1970s that the groundwater well fields in
the Kufrah Oasis area are located in former river channels that are
being recharged by rainfall in the Tibesti Mountains (Ahmad and
Goad, 1978). Pachur (1993) traced this north-trending river course
for hundreds of kilometers south to 22°N, where it debouchs from
the eastern flank of the Tibesti Mountains. In 1994, SIR-C radar imag-
ery revealed evidence for two large branches of this river that drain
toward the Kufrah Oasis (McCauley et al., 1995; El-Baz, 1998).
Robinson et al. (2006) delineated the two main branches farther
244 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257
south using Radarsat-1 imagery and suggested that the western
branch extends as far south as 20°N in Chad. Using Shuttle Radar To-
pography Mission (SRTM) data, Ghoneim et al. (2007) delineated part
of this river course and compared it with previous Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SAR) images for data validation. Recent studies using the same
data set have confirmed that the Kufrah River was an extensive fluvial
network that drained most of eastern Libya and ended in a large ter-
minal inland delta (Drake et al., 2008; Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2008a;
Paillou et al., 2009).
To date, none of these studies have determined the full extent of the
Kufrah Paleoriver and its drainage network. The objective of this study
is to present a comprehensive picture of the entire Kufrah fluvial system
by integrating different types of geospatial data in a GIS. The study also
investigates possible linkages between this drainage system and the
Neogene waterway that connected Megalake Chad with the ancestral
Mediterranean Sea.
2. Data and methodology
Ancient geomorphologic features in the Great Sahara are commonly
well preserved due to the hyper-arid climate and the absence of vegeta-
tion cover, thus can be easily distinguished using satellite data. In this
study, such data were acquired from three different remote sensing
platforms, i.e., Radarsat-1, SRTM and Landsat ETM+.
2.1. Radarsat-1
The radar data are used in this study to reveal buried channels and
other hidden fluvial and structural features. Radar data are also
employed to validate SRTM-derived drainage network. The present
work makes use of the standard mode Radarsat-1 data, an Earth
observation satellite developed by the Canadian Space Agency and
launched in 1995 (Parashar et al., 1993). These data have a 25 m spatial
resolution and are collected in a descending orbit at horizontally-
polarized (HH) single wavelength. This type of low frequency orbital
SAR has the unique ability to penetrate dry sands at the surface to reveal
hidden subsurface features. Their use for the detection of palaeochannels,
lakes shorelines and possible impact craters in this manner is well docu-
mented (e.g., McCauley et al., 1982; Robinson et al., 2006; Ghoneim and
El-Baz, 2007b; Ghoneim, 2009; Paillou et al., 2009). Current Radarsat-1
data are collected in the C-band (λ=5.7 cm) which is useful for imaging
buried features up to 0.5 m deep. The L-band (λ=~23.5 cm) can pene-
trate between 2–5 m (McCauley et al.1982). Unfortunately, subsurface
observations in the L-band are reported to provide less detail than the
C-band despite the greater penetration depth. This is probably due to
the effect of roughness. Near-surface imaging is only achievable if the
particle size of surface sediments is at least 1/5th of the imaging wave-
length (Roth and Elachi, 1975). Subsurface investigations from radar
images at longer wavelengths may be impossible or could lead to misin-
terpretation of buried features.
A total of 78 Radarsat-1 scenes were used in the present research. The
data processing started with image georeferencing and transformation.
All the Radarsat-1 images were mosaicked while minimizing any loss
in dynamic contrast by applying as few adjustments as possible. The
Enhanced Frost Filter (Lopes et al., 1990) was applied to the data with
3 ×3 pixel size windows to reduce the speckle effect and enhance visual
interpretation of the radar images. A digital map of fluvial features in the
study area was generated in vector format based on manual interpreta-
tion and digitizing of buried river courses evident in the radar mosaic.
2.2. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
Publicly available SRTM data (http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/) at ~ 90 m
spatial resolution with 16 m vertical accuracy was the second data
set analyzed for this study. As with the Radarsat-1, the SRTM uses
the C-band wavelength to penetrate dry sand and portray the
near-surface topography (Robinson et al., 2006; Ghoneim and El-
Baz, 2007a; Ghoneim et al., 2007). The SRTM data were principally
used in topographic analysis of the study area, to delineate the
complete drainage network and watershed area of the Kufrah River
system. The process involved constructing a mosaic from the SRTM
to cover the basin area, followed by surface runoff routing based on
the 8-cell neighborhood (D8) approach (Jensen and Domingue,
1988). This procedure automates the identification of headwater
streams, segment linkages, and outlets. It also allows automated assign-
ment of stream orders and segment lengths, facilitating basin morpho-
metric analysis.
The surface routing algorithm identified headwater channels of
the drainage network by using a large threshold value of 20,000
cells of contributing drainage area. The un-branched headwater
stream segments identified in this way have a mean length of about
24 km and a drainage area of roughly 162 km 2. We estimate that
these would be approximately 4th-order streams if the entire channel
network could be reconstructed. This method delineates only the
main channels that can be confidently verified by radar imagery.
The testing determined that smaller threshold values often produce
unrealistic channel courses, especially in low-relief portions of the
basin. The reliability of the SRTM-derived drainage network was
validated against the Radarsat-1 imagery for a small part of the
Kufrah watershed (Fig. 2). At this scale, there is excellent agreement
between the SRTM-derived drainage network and the channels
revealed by Radarsat. Thus, we consider the reconstructed drainage
network to be an accurate representation of the buried paleoriver
system.
2.3. Landsat ETM+
Multispectral Landsat ETM+ data from the U.S. Geological Survey
(http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/) were employed for visual interpretation
of surface features and depositional environments (e.g., fluvial and
lacustrine deposits) in the study area.
All the data used in this study (Radarsat-1, SRTM and Landsat ETM+)
were projected to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and WGS84
datum and were saved in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to
allow overlaying and correlation of surface/subsurface features. Each
data source added significant information, which assisted in the explora-
tion of the region under study. Here, active satellite data, such as
Radarsat-1, penetrate desert sand cover to reveal sub-surface courses
of ancient, now-dry rivers, whereas SRTM provide information about
the topography of these buried river courses (Ghoneim et al., 2007).
Passive satellite imagery, such as Landsat ETM+, enables us to distin-
guish whether features of the radar imagery are surface or sub-surface
features.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Kufrah Paleobasin dimensions
Based on the SRTM-derived basin, the ancient Kufrah River had an
extensive drainage area of about 235,500 km 2 and a length of 950 km.
The river flowed north with a very gentle gradient of about
0.6 m km − 1 comparable to that of the adjacent modern Egyptian
Nile. As is evident from the radar-mapped drainage (Fig. 3), the
Kufrah was a massive river system with the main valley width ex-
ceeding 30 km in some sectors, particularly in its southern reaches.
Robinson et al. (2006) have even indicated the presence of two
large paleolake systems in one of its southern reaches that show elon-
gation along an ENE trend.
The Kufrah Paleobasin spanned about eight degrees of longitude,
draining parts of Egypt, Sudan, Chad and Libya. Its drainage basin
was composed of four major tributaries emerging from highlands to
the west, south and east. The two largest tributaries (Ar-Ramlah
 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257 245

Fig. 2. Demonstration of data sources and methods used in drainage network reconstruction for the portion of the Kufrah paleobasin indicated in Fig. 1. (a) Landsat ETM + color
composite (band 7, 4, and 2) showing the dominance of surface sand cover and bare rocks, with no sign of surface drainages. (b) Radarsat-1 reveals a subsurface incised valley
(about 8–10 km wide) trending northward. This illustrates the ability of radar waves to penetrate the Sahara sand cover. (c) SRTM DEM with drainage network overlain; channel
locations were derived from the DEM in a GIS hydrologic routine using a threshold for headwater channel formation of 20,000 cells. Note the good match at this threshold between
the GIS-generated channels and those visible on the Radarsat-1 image in (b).

and At-Tawilah) together constituted more than two-thirds of the
basin area (Fig. 3). They converged at the Kufrah Oasis, which is
well known today for its productive groundwater wells and fertile
soil. The other two tributaries (Sura and Abd-El-Malik) emerged
from the Gilf-Kebir Plateau in southwest Egypt to join the main
stem of the Kufrah Paleoriver (Fig. 4). This lower reach is today called
Wadi Blittah; it flows north until it exits the plateau at Jabal Dalma
where it has deposited a large inland paleodelta.
The reconstructed drainage network allows a first attempt at mea-
suring morphometric variables (Table 1) for the Kufrah Paleobasin
and for others previously studied in the Eastern Sahara by Ghoneim
and El-Baz (2007a, 2008b). This is the first time such parameters
have been estimated for ancient drainages in the Sahara. The three
basins produce fairly similar results, reflecting their shared climatic
and geologic settings. The scale-independent variables (bifurcation
ratio and length ratio) produce results that are typical of basins
with homogeneous bedrock geology and moderate relief (Ritter et
al., 2002). The estimated drainage densities are consistent across the
three basins, but severely underestimate the actual channel density
due to the method of identifying channels from SRTM data (described
in Section 2.2).
3.2. Channel evolution and river piracy
Earlier studies indicated that during the late Miocene, prior to the
development of the Kufrah drainage system, western Egypt and eastern
Libya were dominated by two large river systems (Fig. 5): the Sahabi
(Griffin, 2002) and the Gilf-Kebir-Qattara (Issawi and McCauley,
1992). Segments of the buried channel course of the Sahabi River are
clearly visible for the first time using the Radarsat-1 imagery (Fig. 5).
The river had a valley width of more than 6 km in places, and alluvium
in this valley was likely a source of sand to the vast sand sheet east of the
Tibesti Mountains.
During the Messinian stage of the late Miocene (ca. 6 Ma ago), the
Mediterranean Sea was greatly diminished by evaporation for a period
of approximately 600,000 years (Krijgsman et al., 1999). The lowering
of base level caused incision and extension of rivers in the Sahabi and
Gilf-Kebir-Qattara Paleobasins. These rivers eventually joined together
near the present Gulf of Sirt, forming the Sahabi Master River (Fig. 5b)
which dominated the region for an extended period of time and likely
received outflow from Megalake Chad (Griffin, 2006).
In the Early Pliocene, Mediterranean Sea levels rose to inundate
the outlet of the Sahabi Master River, breaking it up into several inde-
pendent river systems: the Sahabi, Kufrah, Gilf-Kebir and Cyrenaica
drainages (Fig. 5c). During this time, subsidence near the eastern
edge of the Tibesti Plateau lowered the local base level in the lower
Kufrah basin (Griffin, 2002), promoting channel incision and head-
ward erosion in its upper reaches despite the sea rise affecting its
distal reach. We propose that this period of rejuvenation in the Kufrah
River captured what were formerly the upper reaches of the Sahabi
River.
The subsidence ultimately resulted in the creation of a consider-
able height difference between the Sahabi and Kufrah basins that
steepened the course of the Kufrah and triggered piracy of the Sahabi
headwaters. The Kufrah Paleobasin expanded southward dramatical-
ly increasing its watershed area (Fig. 5).
246 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257

Fig. 3. The Kufrah Paleoriver study area. (a) Radarsat-1 mosaic of the study area. Images were linearly scaled from 16 bit to 8 bit images, with a Gaussin stretch applied. Maximum
image detail is maintained by minimizing the adjustments made during mosaicking. (b) Drainage pathways digitized directly from the Radarsat-1 mosaic. The Kufrah Paleoriver
drained a large area of eastern Libya, and was much more extensive than the disconnected “Wadi” surface drainages in the region today.

The SRTM data and Radarsat-1 imagery provide evidence for large
scale river piracy and flow diversions in the area. Ar-Ramlah, the
western branch of the Kufrah Paleoriver (Fig. 4), has an unusual
barbed drainage pattern in its southwestern margins. Two of the
major tributaries of this western branch (X1 and X2 in Fig. 6b) are miss-
ing the headwater channels that would be required to produce their
wide valleys. In addition, the eastern tributaries (Wadi Muthammah
and Wadi Qur-Sbata in Fig. 6) join the main stem at obtuse angles
along courses trending toward two elongated lowlands located be-
tween the Hamadat Ibn-Batutah, Gara Abou Ndougay, and Hamadat
Al-Aqdamin plateaus. This topographic evidence suggests that the two
tributaries originally drained westward to the Sahabi Paleoriver before
being captured to produce the barbed drainage of the Kufrah. Evidence
of river capture is revealed in the elbow of capture and wind gap
features along the western branch of the Kufrah paleoriver as shown
in Fig. 6b. The reduction of flow in the Sahabi Paleoriver must have
greatly altered its morphology and subsequent basin development.
Deep vertical incisions along the western branch of the Kufrah
Paleoriver, visible in the Radarsat-1 and SRTM data (Fig. 6), provide
further evidence for an episode of fluvial rejuvenation in the basin.
For example, one reach of the Kufrah's western branch flows through
a bedrock gorge where the valley width narrows from an average
width of about 5 km to less than 400 m with a depth of about 55 m.
The valley narrowing could be ascribed to differential bedrock ero-
sion, but there are no obvious lithological boundaries in this part of
the basin. Rather, we propose that it reflects vertical incision related
to base level fall and increased streamflow during the rejuvenation
stage of the late-Messinian and Early Pliocene.
The area of low relief and remarkable radar dark signature west of
the plateaus of Gara Abou Ndougay and Hamadat Ibn-Batutah, and the
west–east orientation of streams suggest that the Kufrah Paleoriver
received drainage from parts of the Tibesti Mountains as a result of
stream piracy. If this interpretation is correct, then the added catchment
would increase the length of the Kufrah Paleobasin to about 1150 km.
Consequently its drainage network would have looked like that in Fig. 7.
The loss of a large part of the Sahabi Paleobasin by the Early Pliocene,
following river capture by the Kufrah Paleoriver and detachment from
Megalake Chad inputs, likely resulted in a dramatic reduction of stream-
flow and increased sedimentation. Concurrently, the distal outlet was
also experiencing siltation due to rising relative sea level of the
Mediterranean (Barr and Walker, 1973; Drake et al., 2008), which
reached 125 m above modern level in the Pliocene (Goudie, 2005). At
that stage, the lower reach of the Sahabi Paleoriver was choked with
sediment that spread onto the broad interfluves (Barr and Walker,
1973). The capture of the southern portions of the Sahabi Paleoriver
eventually contributed to the demise of the entire Sahabi River system
over the course of the Pliocene.
Other river systems besides the Sahabi show evidence of river cap-
ture by enlargement of the Kufrah Paleobasin. For example, the elongat-
ed Derbili-Marhdogoum depression located southeast of the Kufrah
basin contains morphological and sedimentological evidence of having
once contained a large river system (McCauley et al., 1998). This sand-
buried paleoriver, appears clearly in Radarsat-1 imagery, was likely an
outlet draining water northward from Megalake Chad during the
mid-Messinian, before its flow was diverted south by uplift of the Erdi
Mountains to the east (Griffin, 2006). SRTM topographic data suggest
 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257 247

Fig. 4. Reconstruction of the Kufrah Paleoriver from SRTM data. (a) Drainage basin and channel network. (b) Longitudinal profile along the main stem through Wadi Al-Ramlah, Al
Kufrah Oasis, and Wadi Blittah.

capture of segments of this southward-draining paleoriver by the
eastern branch of the Kufrah River (Fig. 7). Evidence for this includes
the headward extension of the Kufrah River and the sharp bend of
one of its captured channels. Moreover, the delineated SRTM drainage
exhibits a distinct elbow-of-capture drainage pattern in the Derbili-
Marhdogoum paleoriver suggesting a large scale river piracy by the
Kufrah Paleoriver. If this large river piracy did occur, then its drainage
network would have looked like that in Fig. 7.
3.3. Kufrah inland delta
The episode of stream piracy described above would have caused
significant re-routing of sediment supply from the Sahabi basin to
the Kufrah basin. This increased supply helps account for the large
volume of sediment stored in the Kufrah basin during the Pliocene
and Pleistocene, including the enormous inland delta located where
the Kufrah Paleoriver exited the plateau at Jabal Dalma and entered

Table 1
Morphometric variables for the Kufrah paleobasin, compared with those for the Tushka (Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2007a) and Howar (Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2008b) paleobasins.

Basin Area (km2) Relief (m) Perimeter (km) L–W ratio Basin shape Gradient (%) Bifurc. ratio Length ratio Drainage density⁎

Kufrah 201,482 834 4867 2.10 0.48 0.13 4.69 2.61 0.070
Tushka 149,806 929 2880 2.50 0.40 0.15 3.87 2.12 0.056
Howar 184,954 1805 3718 5.50 0.18 0.18 5.04 2.57 0.067
⁎ Drainage density is greatly underestimated due to high threshold of contributing area needed to identify headwater channels in the drainage basins.
248 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257

Fig. 5. Proposed sequence of Miocene–Pliocene drainage rearrangement in the study area. (a) Late Miocene (pre-Messinian). (b) Late Miocene (Messinian). (c) Early Pliocene.
(d) and (e) Segments of the buried channel of the Sahabi Master River (locations are shown in a), which became visible, for the first time, using the Radarsat-1 imagery. Arrows
indicate possible ancient flow directions.

the Al-Jaghbub Basin at its northern terminus (Pachur and
Hoelzmann, 2000; Drake et al., 2008; Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2008a;
Paillou et al., 2009). The Kufrah inland paleodelta was probably
broadly similar to the modern-day inland deltas of the Okavango
and Niger rivers in Africa (McCarthy, 1993). The dominance of quartz
sand in the Kufrah inland delta, and in the adjacent Plio-Pleistocene
Garat Uedda formation, strongly suggests a source in the Cretaceous
Nubian Sandstone that outcrops throughout southern Libya (Fig. 1;
Di Cesare et al., 1963). The delta was located near an elongated arm
of the sea that extended south to 30 N latitude and east to the Al-
Jaghbub Oasis during the Early Pliocene (Carmignani et al., 1990).
For a time in the Pliocene, the outflow of the Kufrah Paleoriver likely
reached the sea through delta distributary channels which drained
into this shallow sea. Relicts of at least three large NW-trending
paleochannels branching from the main trunk are visible in the
Radarsat-1 images near the center of the inland delta (Fig. 8). Other
N–NE-trending paleochannels dissect the delta surface leading
toward the Al-Jaghbub Basin and western Egypt (Fig. 8).
Today, the visible part of the Kufrah inland delta covers an area of
at least 34,000 km 2 (Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2008a) with a low gradient
of 3.5 m km − 1 near the delta apex and 1 m km − 1 at its distal edge.
Remnant alluvial deposits buried beneath sand dunes at the northern
flank of the delta, visible in the optical and radar images (Fig. 8), sug-
gest a much larger delta area of approximately 47,500 km 2. The dark
radar signature at the distal edge of the delta reflects fine-grained
sand and silt (of possible fluvial origin), while the bright signature
of the main delta surface is due to high surface roughness and scatter-
ing by coarse sand and gravel. A dark area near the delta apex is inter-
preted as an older finer-grained delta lobe partially buried by dunes
on the valley floor. This extension of the delta surface was most likely
deposited during the Pliocene, when humid conditions would have
promoted perennial streamflow and low energy fluvial environ-
ments. By contrast, episodic deposition of coarse-grained sediments
during flash floods and hyper-concentrated flows characterize the
arid, unstable climate of the Quaternary.
3.4. Northern paleolakes
SRTM data reveal a deep topographic depression in the Al-Jaghbub
Basin just north of the Kufrah inland delta. This basin is filled by the
Qarat Weddah Formation, which comprised of approximately 45 m of
unconsolidated quartz sand with thin beds of sandy clay (Di Cesare et
al., 1963). The upper part of this formation is the Upper Pliocene or
Pleistocene in age and contains fauna of pelecypods, gastropods,
foraminifera and ostracods that indicate a brackish lake or estuary
with limited connection to the open sea (Di Cesare et al., 1963). These
deposits attest that a large lake formerly occupied the basin; we call it
Paleolake Al-Jaghbub after the Al-Jaghbub Oasis at its eastern margin.
The area of this lake was estimated by Drake et al. (2008) to be about
6000 km2. However, additional remnant lacustrine deposits are visible
 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257 249

Fig. 6. Proposed stream capture of Sahabi Paleoriver channels by the Kufrah Paleoriver. (a) Upper part of Sahabi Master River before capture. (b) Capture of stream segments by headward
extension of Kufrah Paleoriver tributaries. Rectangular box indicates the area shown in (c). (c) Radarsat-1 image of part of the Kufrah Paleoriver, showing valley narrowing at site of stream
capture. (d) Detail of narrow bedrock valley produced by incision following proposed stream capture by the Kufrah Paleoriver. (e) Topographic profile across the incised valley.

in the Radarsat-1 and Landsat ETM+ images beneath the longitudinal
sand dunes of the Great Sand Sea (Fig. 8). The distribution of these
remnants suggests that the paleolake was substantially larger before
the emplacement of the Great Sand Sea. We estimate the area of Paleolake
Al-Jaghbub at about 12,100 km2, roughly twice the previous estimate, and
that it held approximately 984.4 m3 of water at its maximum height of
48 m a.s.l. (Fig. 9).
During the Pleistocene, a bay-mouth bar formed to separate the
Gulf of Sirt from the low-lying area that was inundated by the sea
in the Pliocene (El-Hawat and Pawellek, 2004). As a result, a large
paleolake called Sabkhat al-Qenien was formed west to the paleolake
of Al-Jaghbub (Drake et al., 2008). SRTM topographic data suggest
that these lakes were connected through a lowland corridor to form
a much larger lake. The results of virtually filling the lake basin
shows that just a 2 m rise in the level above the surface of Paleolake
Al-Jaghbub would have connected it to the Sabkhat al-Qenien, form-
ing a vast paleolake with an area of about 37,800 km 2, which held
around 3300 km 3 of water when filled (Fig. 9). The combined lake
may have been much larger (Fig. 9) if it was separated from the
Gulf of Sirt by a large barrier bar, similar to the 80 m thick oolitic
coastal bar of the Wadi Farigh member of the late Miocene
(Carmignani et al., 1990).
250 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257

Fig. 7. Possible drainage capture by the Kufrah Paleobasin. (a) Extensions of the channel network (in red) into the Tibesti Mountains and Derbili-Marhdogoum trough, shown over
visible satellite image. (b) Detail of captured area in the Derbili-Marhdogoum trough. (c) Detail of channel network extension into Derbili-Marhdogoum trough, shown over SRTM-
derived DEM. Note the narrow incised valleys that may connect the Kufrah headwater channels (in blue) with those identified in the trough (in red).

At present, all of the distributary channels of the Kufrah inland However, the number, size, and orientation of remnant channels
delta disappear beneath the Great Sand Sea before reaching the crossing the delta strongly suggest that they fed the paleolake during
elongated depression that was occupied by Paleolake Al-Jaghbub. its existence.
 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257 251

Fig. 8. Detail of the Kufrah Inland Delta. (a) Geomorphic features on the fan including paleochannels. (b) Detailed optical image of megadune field burying the Al-Jaghbub Paleolake
Basin at the edge of the Great Sand Sea. (c) Radar image of the same area shown in (b). The bright radar signature (see arrow) is interpreted as a lacustrine deposit buried beneath
the margins of the Great Sand Sea and suggests that the paleolake was substantially larger before the emplacement of the Great Sand Sea.

3.5. Great Sand Sea
The development of the Great Sand Sea of northern Libya is closely
linked to the climatic history of the Sahara–Mediterranean region.
Paleoclimatic reconstructions for northern Africa suggest that humid
and arid phases in the northern Sahara were linked to the timing of
high latitude glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere (De Menocal,
2004). The Sahara became progressively drier in the late Pliocene as
ice sheets began to form, with humid periods associated with transi-
tions between glacial and interglacial stages. In the lower Kufrah
basin, the humid phases were likely times of perennial fluvial sedi-
ment delivery to Paleolakes Al-Jaghbub and Sabkhat al-Qenien. The
arid phases were times of episodic sediment delivery to the Kufrah
inland delta, accompanied by desiccation of the paleolakes. Thus,
great volumes of quartz-rich sand were deposited in the northern
part of the Kufrah basin during the Pliocene and Pleistocene by the
combined effects of fluvial deposition on the Kufrah inland delta
and lacustrine deposits in Paleolake Al-Jaghbub. During these arid
periods, Paleolakes Al-Jaghbub and Sabkhat al-Qenien dried up due
to reduced runoff from the Kufrah Paleoriver and the lowering of
the regional water table. The exposed lake beds would have served
as ideal sources of aeolian sand. Northwesterly winds off the Gulf of
Sirt reworked these deposits to produce the Great Sand Sea, which
is located immediately south of the Al-Jaghbub Basin (Besler et al.,
2008). It is likely that fluvial, deltaic, and alluvial sediments, particu-
larly from the Kufrah inland delta, served as additional sources of
aeolian sand. The highlands of Jabal Dalama and the Gilf-Kebir Plateau
limited the southward transport of the dune field, enhancing the
thick accumulations of sand that characterize the modern Great
Sand Sea.
The fluvial deposits in northern Libya that are described here, and
that served as an aeolian source area to the Great Sand Sea, lend
support to the model first proposed by Di Cesare et al. (1963) and
expanded upon by El-Baz (1982). These studies emphasized that
the ultimate source of aeolian sands in the Eastern Sahara is erosion
of the Nubian Sandstone and Paleozoic bedrock outcrops in southern
Libya and Egypt, transported northward by paleorivers that existed
during humid phases of the Pliocene and Pleistocene. These deposits
252 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257

Fig. 9. Schematic diagrams of the Al-Jaghbub Paleolakes. (a) Paleolake margins during the Late Pliocene sea level high stand. (b) Paleolake margins during humid phases of the
Quaternary. (c) Oblique view of the lake area relative to the Kufrah Paleobasin and inland delta.

were later displaced southward by northerly winds that prevailed
during dry phases. These areas of sand accumulation are the domi-
nant landforms of the region today; they also have importance as
they signal potential locations for groundwater accumulation
(El-Baz, 1998; El-Baz et al., 2000; Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2007a,
2007b; Ghoneim, 2008).
3.6. Possible water passageway between Megalake Chad and the
Mediterranean Sea
The Sahabi Canyon (the lower reach of the Sahabi Master Paleoriver)
follows a northwesterly course through the Sirt Basin toward the
Mediterranean Sea. This canyon exhibits striking similarities in valley
 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257 253

width (~5 km) and flow direction to the main paleo distributary of the
Kufrah inland delta (Fig. 10). Barr and Walker (1973) proposed that
both channels were segments of the same river, suggesting that the
Kufrah paleoriver once attained external drainage to the Mediterranean
Sea (Paillou et al., 2009). With the increasing aridity of the Pleistocene
and the formation of the Great Sand Sea, this paleo-drainage became
hydrologically disconnected and partially buried beneath a thick
aeolian sand sheet.
To the south, a prominent elongated lowland topography between
the Kufrah River and Megalake Chad is clearly visible in the SRTM
data (Fig. 11). This natural corridor (herein referred to as the
Kufrah-Al-Kebir Trough) is presently occupied by two large dry

Fig. 10. The Sahabi Paleochannel in the Sirt Basin. (a) Location of Sahabi Paleochannel relative to distributaries of the Kufrah inland delta, shown over Landsat visible image. Red line
demonstrates the possible connection between these channels before they were buried beneath the Great Sand Sea. (b) Colored elevation (SRTM DEM) grid overlain on a grayscale
Radarsat-1 image with a 90% transparency to show the partially-buried Sahabi Canyon. The Sahabi Paleochannel is strikingly similar to the main distributary channel of the Kufrah
inland delta in terms of valley width and flow direction.
254 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257

Fig. 11. Detail of the possible connection between Megalake Chad and the Kufrah Paleoriver through the Kufrah-Al-Kebir Trough. (a) SRTM-derived topography of the trough.
(b) Reconstructed paleodrainage in the trough, including parts of the Kufrah Paleoriver and the Al-Kebir Paleoriver. (c) Radarsat-1 image showing the proximity of the upper
reaches of the two paleorivers and the presence of narrow incised channel connecting them. (d) Radarsat-1 image of the Amatinga Paleoriver, which is partially buried beneath
thin aeolian sand. (e) Amatinga Paleochannel delineated from (d) shown over SRTM data. The Amatinga Paleoriver was likely abandoned following neotectonic uplift of the
elevated plateau in the center-right of the image.

river beds: the north-draining Kufrah River (western branch) and the
south-draining Al-Kebir River. The proximity of the upper reaches of
the two rivers within this depression, the presence of narrow channel
between them (Fig. 11c) and the complete absence of headwater trib-
utaries to them, suggest that the two rivers were connected in the
past.
The southernmost reach of the Kufrah-Al-Kebir Trough is occupied
by a wide paleovalley that is partially noticeable in Landsat imagery
and is known as the Amatinga Valley. This peculiar river segment
appears to have originated from the ancient Megalake Chad and
drained northward through a 40 km long and 1–3 km wide valley,
opposite to the present southward gradient (Griffin, 2006).
Radarsat-1 images analyzed for the present study reveal additional
morphologic details of this paleovalley, and allow mapping of an ad-
ditional 40 km long extension of the Amatinga River valley, which is
buried beneath aeolian sand (Fig. 11). The SRTM data show that this
buried river segment crosses a plateau that is elevated several tens
of meters above adjacent segments of the Amatinga River (Fig. 11),
suggesting that tectonic uplift in this area postdates the paleochannel
and perhaps caused the channel to be abandoned. Another area of
 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257 255

neotectonic uplift, along an east–west axis at around 21°N latitude
(Griffin, 2002), has been identified in the area that forms the drainage
divide between the Kufrah and Al Kebir Paleobasins.
The Amatinga Paleoriver is proposed to have been active in the
Early Pliocene (Griffin, 2006), at roughly the same time when the
Kufrah Paleoriver dominated the eastern part of Libya. Thus, it is like-
ly that the Kufrah-Al-Kebir Trough was an early overflow outlet of
Megalake Chad that drained through the Kufrah Paleoriver to the
Mediterranean Sea. In the absence of absolute age control, the timing
of outflow from the megalake through the Kufrah paleobasin cannot
be determined, but it must have occurred during a period of high
lake level prior to tectonic uplift of the drainage divide. A tentative
Pliocene or Early Pleistocene age seems reasonable given the amount
of tectonic uplift and the climatic history of the area. If the

Fig. 12. Proposed outlet from Megalake Chad to the Mediterranean Sea through the Amatinga River, Al-Kebir Trough, Kufrah Paleoriver, and Sahabi Canyon. The channel may have
been active during high lake stages of the Pliocene or early Pleistocene.
256 E. Ghoneim et al. / Geomorphology 139–140 (2012) 242–257
connections between Megalake Chad and the Mediterranean Sea
through the Amatinga Paleoriver, Kufrah Paleoriver, and Sahabi
Paleochannel can be confirmed, the total length of the drainage
would exceed 1900 km (Fig. 12). This valley and its associated wetlands
may have acted as part of a natural corridor used by hominins to migrate
northward across what is now the Great Sahara (Drake et al., 2010).
4. Conclusion
The entire drainage basin of the Kufrah Paleoriver has been mapped
here for the first time by integrating 78 Radarsat-1 scenes with SRTM
data and Landsat ETM+ images. With a length of at least 950 km and
an area of at least 236,000 km2, the Kufrah Paleobasin is the largest
paleoriver system yet identified and mapped in the Eastern Sahara of
North Africa. It is much larger than the Tushka River (150,000 km2)
(Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2007a), the Northern Darfur basin (129,230 km2)
(Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2007b), and the Howar River (184,820 km2)
(Ghoneim and El-Baz, 2008b). In addition to delineating the former drain-
age patterns of the Kufrah basin, this study might aid future exploration
for groundwater and oil resources, and help to inform neotectonic,
archaeological, and paleoclimate research efforts in the study area.
The Kufrah Paleoriver system was the dominant drainage in eastern
Libya during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. The Kufrah Paleobasin seems
to have developed by progressive capture of the Sahabi River System
that dominated the area in the Miocene (Griffin, 2002, 2006). This
drainage expansion was likely driven by tectonic subsidence in the
Kufrah basin relative to the Sahabi and surrounding basins. Images
derived from SRTM and Radarsat-1 data show several deeply-incised
gorges along the margins of the Kufrah basin where it may have been
connected to rivers in the Tibesti Mountains to the west, and the
Kufrah-Al-Kebir Trough to the south.
The elongated Kufrah-Al-Kebir Trough, located south of the Kufrah
Paleobasin, likely served as an outlet of Megalake Chad during humid
phases of the Pliocene. This channel system is largely buried today,
but it is clearly visible in the radar images. The proposed outlet flowed
northward through the incised valley of the Amatinga River, across
the Al-Kebir valley into the southwestern tributary of the Kufrah
Paleoriver. It then followed the Kufrah Paleoriver northward to the
Kufrah delta, where it either flowed through the Sahabi Paleochannel
to the Gulf of Sirt or fed the paleolake of the Al-Jaghbub depression.
Although it has not been determined when this outlet was active, the
space images provide the strongest evidence to date of a northern outlet
from Megalake Chad to the Mediterranean Sea. The outlet was likely
closed by tectonic uplift that divided the Kufrah and Al-Kebir systems.
The Al-Jaghbub Basin, at the terminus of the Kufrah Paleoriver in
northern Libya, was periodically occupied by large brackish or freshwater
lakes in the Pliocene and Pleistocene (Paleolakes Al-Jaghbub, Siwa,
and Sabkhat al-Qenien). The Kufrah Inland Paleodelta (and the similar
Gilf-Kebir paleodelta) was built by intermittent fluvial deposition at the
edge of this basin. Radar imagery analyzed for this study shows that the
paleolakes and inland delta were significantly larger than previously
recognized in visible images, supporting the idea that they were once
part of a large integrated hydrologic system, before being buried by the
development of the Great Sand Sea.
The described features of the Kufrah Paleobasin may offer significant
opportunities for natural resource exploration. The Kufrah valley acted
as a conduit for surface water and also provided space for groundwater
storage and recharge into the underlying Nubian Aquifer. Given that the
modern annual precipitation of the region is only 1.3 mm (Wright et al.,
1982), modern recharge through surface inputs cannot be expected to
take place in the Kufrah Basin. However, occasional intense orographic
rains in the Tibesti Mountains could lead to considerable recharge
through the buried channels of the western branch of the Kufrah
Paleoriver. In addition, the deep depression of the Al-Jaghbub basin
may hold considerable reservoirs of oil and natural gas at depth.
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