The groundwater sapping process can be found in both sedimentary and volcanic rocks. This phenomenon of lateral flowing of groundwater and its emergence as seeps at the edges of the scarps required a resistant permeable layer underlain by a soft impermeable layer. Thus it can be found in Nubia Sandstone sequences of the Western Desert of Egypt which include silty or clayey horizons underlying the highly permeable sandstone beds in the Gilf El Kebir Plateau, the Dakhla Basin and the Great Sand Sea. It is also well represented on the steep shale-limestone scarps of eastern Kharga Oasis, northern scarps of Abu Tartur and Dakhla Oasis, and the eastern scarps of Farafra Oasis where the partial removal of the soft material of the underlying shale (Dakhla Shale in Dakhla or Esna Shale in Kharga and Farafra Oases) by groundwater sapping led to the creation of an overhanging ledge with protected wide alcoves above the impermeable contact between the shale and limestone. Compared to Mars, the evidence for groundwater sapping in the Western Desert of Egypt is completely identical to that of its analogues on the surface of Mars. In the latter Planet, the intensively cracked and jointed basaltic materials exposed on steep wall surfaces of the valleys as well as the amphitheater-headed valleys indicate that the basaltic cliffs were subjected to groundwater sapping process such as the sandstone and limestone scarps of the Western Desert of Egypt. Both the similarities and differences of this phenomenon between Western Desert and Mars are given.
Groundwater sapping process, alcoves, amphitheater-headed valleys, Western Desert, Mars
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