Geophysical Contribution to the Determination of the Limit between Laayoune and Foum El Oued Aquifers, Origin of Supply Sources of Oued Sakia El Hamra, Laayoune Province, Morocco

Abstract

Laayoune and the Foum El Oued aquifers are in hydraulic communication only at the level of Oued Saguia El Hamra. The present study has accordingly made use of all the hydrogeological, hydrological, geological and geophysical data that preceded the watershed of Oued Saguia El Hamra in its downstream part. These data are by no means omplementary with the objective of having a better understanding of the boundary line between Laayoune and Foum El Oued aquifers and the origin of feeding the sources of Oued Saguia El Hamra. This study will focus only on the previous geophysical studies where a reinterpretation of electrical soundings has proved useful as a result of the recent well-logging results. It makes it possible to highlight the presence of a significant rise in the truncated marly substratum of Oued Saguia El Hamra and depressions (left and right banks) which could correspond to stream channels or depressed areas. At the level of the Wadi bed, there has been a regular immersion of the conductive level roofs from east to west towards Foum El Oued favoring the flow of wastewater from the zone and spraying the brackish water sources towards the groundwater of Foum El Oued. In the light of the reinterpretation of electric polls, plus as well as the geophysical surveys by electrical tomography and high definition made at the right and left banks of the Oueed Saguia El-Hamra, it was possible to verify the existence of dry ridge separating the two webs of Laayoune and Foum El Oued and stream channels or depressed areas of the left bank for drainage of brackish water to sources located along Oued Saguia El Hamra. The true resistivity models tomography profiles confirm the presence of the backbone at the left and right banks and the graben of the left bank for underground water drainage of the web Laayoune to sources welling the river Saguia El Hamra. They reveal the presence of a quaternary plio-cover (coastal platform Moghrebian) as being heterogeneous and affected by many electrical discontinuities, particularly in the level resistant R2 (coquina sandstone). These discontinuities could correspond to lateral changes in facies and/or synsedimental faults compartmentalizing the plio-quaternary formations into a system of Horsts and Grabens that relies on the whole (D1, Cs) attributed to formations from the Miocene to the Upper Cretaceous. The contours of the map show the distribution of the three families of electrical soundings A, B and C limited by two main electrical discontinuities D and M. East of discontinuity million, this map reflects the look of the wall of the Pliocene-Quaternary resting on the impermeable upper Cretaceous floor. To the west of this electrical discontinuity M, the map reflects the behavior of the roof of marl deposits of Miocene age.