الفهرس 
مقدمه الدراسهOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The unicontrolled rapid human activities along the red sea coast has increased significantly in the last three decades in some areas, especially in the city of hurghada, causing series of disturbances and pressures destructive to the ecosystm. the different human impacts at the area invvited many researchers in recent years to examine and interpret the environmental system of the modern coastal deposits along hurghada coastThe Red Sea occupies a part of an enormous crack in the continental crust of Africa and Arabia. It extends in a northwesterly direction from the narrow strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, at its southern tip to the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, a distance of about 1840 km, from Lat. 12° 40′ N at 27° 45′ N (Gohar, 1953).
The Red Sea has an average depth of 500m, and is noted for some of the hottest (exceeding 30 °C) and most saline (up to 46‰) seawater in the world (Behairy et al., 1992). The Red Sea is also unique for its very irregular bottom topography (excluding the Gulf of Suez); hence the nature and distribution of its bottom deposits are unmatched in other seas. It is a young ocean basin often called an ocean in status nascent. To the south the Red Sea is connected to the Gulf of Aden through the shallow, 137m deep Babb el Mandeb strait (Werner and Lange, 1975). It extends north word to Sinai Peninsula which divides it into the shallow Suez Gulf, 250 km long, average width of 32 km and average depth of 64m and deep Aqaba Gulf, 150 km long, average width of 16 km and average depth of 650m (El-Shenawy et al., 2006).The Red Sea is a home of a unique fauna due to its almost isolated position near the Indian Ocean and therefore is one of the most fascinating diving areas of the world. The Red Sea coast has lately attracted the attention of several investors from different countries overlooking the sea and working in the fields of tourism, marine sports, diving, fishing, medical treatment, occasionally mining and quarrying as basis for local industries. These tremendous potentials have been found to be associated with particular geomorphological features characterizing the Red Sea coast including the high hills, alluvial fans, raised beaches, sharms, beside the spectacular barrier and fringing reefs which are considered specific for this coast as the northern-most coral reefs in the world, in addition to the coastal mangrove distributed along the shore line.
The Red Sea region has always been a vital maritime trade route linking the Middle East with the other continents of the Old World. Over the course of the past few decades, the oil industry and marine transportation of oil has increased thesignificance of the region. This has placed it frequently at the center of the geopolitical strategies of the industrialized countries. At the same time an increasing interest in the Region’s living marine resources and their habitats has developed both at the local and international levels. Early studies on the Region’s living marine resources can be dated back to the collections of flora and fauna, particularly fish, made by the Swedish naturalist Peter Forsskal in 1761-1762. Most recently, projects funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and other donors aim to help in the conservation and sustainable management of the biodiversity of the region.
Lack of reception facilities at ports for dealing with bilge and ballast waters is of concern. With increase in recreation, a need is seen for the construction of new marinas. There are plans to establish marinas in three stages from now to 2017, to serve 50,000 yachts and boats in 24 locations in the Red Sea (including the Gulfs of Aqaba and Suez). Waste collection and disposal is inadequate or non-existent, and the most conspicuous form of pollution is the great variety of discarded waste material (scrap metal, wood, plastics, miscellaneous garbage and a variety of construction materials) that litters beaches and seabed around human settlements throughout the area. This is not particularly damaging to the environment, but is incompatible with successful coastal tourist developments. Measures are being taken to improve municipal waste collection and disposal in the Hurghada area, but not, so far, for other areas (GEF, 1998).
In contrast to other regional seas arouaround the world where most pollution comes from landbased activities, the main source of marine pollution in the Red Sea Region is from ship-based sources, oil exploitation and offshore oil production. While production and transport of oil continue to play a critical role in the Region’s economy, they also constitute major sources of marine pollution. The marine pollution could be derived through the discharge of oily ballast water and tank washings by vessels, operational spills from vessels loading or unloading at port, accidental spills from foundered vessels, and leaks from vessels in transit (PERSGA, 2010). The lack of waste and garbage reception facilities and landing places results in dive boats and other coastal shipping discharging wastes and rubbish into the sea, so contributing to coastal pollution. Discharges from sewage treatment facilities and desalination plans are potentially damaging, but at present appear to be well managed and not cause environmental pollution.Generally, the environmental problems and threats to the Red Sea ecosystem and geosystem include recreation and tourism activities, landfilling, dredging, oil pollution, water pollution, solid waste disposal, phosphate pollution and fishing practices. As a result of the human activities, pollution extends along the shore, and is discharged to the nearshore waters. Some of these pollutants may directly or indirectly be captured by bottom sediments. In the case of successive concentrations of these pollutants in bottom sediments, the latter will act as reservoir for pollutants. In that case, bottom sediments may interact with adjacent bottom water mass, enriching it or gathering from it pollutants of different types. Harbours in these areas are mainly the source of contaminated sediments and marine invertebrates to offshore areas. Pollution and sediment fill threaten the nearby coral reefs and some invertebrate’s species (Madkour, 2004).
Therefore, geochemical and environmental studies of recent sediments along the Egyptian Red Sea coast are very important in assessing potential environmental hazards resulting from the irrational human activities.
The areas of this study are located in Hurghada Coast and its surroundings where, six areas were selected respectively from the South to the North