Structure, sedimentation, and basin dynamics during rifting of the Gulf of Suez and north-western Red Sea

Bosworth, William; Crevello, Paul D.; Winn, Robert D.; Steinmetz, John C.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-4930-3_6

Cited by 71 publications

(42 citation statements)

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“…A small dike is present on the north side of Wadi Naqara near Safaga, but it is too altered to be dated ( Fig. 5; Bosworth et al 1998). South of Quseir at Sharm el Qibli and Sharm el Bahari small, thin basalt flows are interbedded with red sandstone and siltstone of the Nakheil Formation.…”

Section: Egyptian Red Sea Marginmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There have been long running debates about the ages of these units and where precisely to place the base-rift unconformity. Micropaleontological studies of exploratory wells and some outcrops have suggested that the oldest syn-rift formations, exclusive of the very southern Red Sea, are ϳ23 Ma, near the Oligocene-Miocene boundary (Bunter and Abdel Magid 1989;Hughes and Beydoun 1992;McClay et al 1998;Bosworth et al 1998;Hughes et al 1999). Other interpretations have placed the base syn-rift unconformity within the Late Oligocene (Dullo et al 1983;Bayer et al 1988;Purser and Hötzl 1988;El Barkooky and El-Araby 1999;Bosworth and McClay 2001;Jackson et al 2006;Jackson 2008), or even Early Oligocene (Hughes and Filatoff 1995;Koeshidayatullah et al 2016).…”

Section: Late Oligocene -Early Miocene Structuration and Syn-rift Depmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early magmatism in the greater Red Sea rift: timing and significance

Bosworth¹,

Stöckli

2016

Can. J. Earth Sci.

105

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Throughout the greater Red Sea rift system the initial late Cenozoic syn-rift strata and extensional faulting are closely associated with alkali basaltic volcanism. Older stratigraphic units are either pre-rift or deposited during pre-rupture mechanical weakening of the lithosphere. The East African superplume appeared in northeast Africa ϳ46 Ma but was not accompanied by any significant extensional faulting. Continental rifting began in the eastern and central Gulf of Aden at ϳ31-30 Ma coeval with the onset of continental flood volcanism in northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, and western Yemen. Volcanism appeared soon after at Derudeb in southern Sudan and at Harrats Hadan and As Sirat in Saudi Arabia. From ϳ26.5 to 25 Ma a new phase of volcanism began with the intrusion of a dike field reaching southeast of Afar into the Ogaden. At 24-23 Ma dikes were emplaced nearly simultaneously north of Afar and reached over 2000 km into northern Egypt. The dike event linked Afar to the smaller Cairo mini-plume and corresponds to initiation of lithospheric extension and rupture in the central and northern Red Sea and Gulf of Suez. By ϳ21 Ma the dike intrusions along the entire length of the Red Sea were completed. Each episodic enlargement of the greater Red Sea rift system was triggered and facilitated by breakthrough of mantle-derived plumes. However, the absence of any volumetrically significant rift-related volcanism during the main phase of Miocene central and northern Red Sea -Gulf of Suez rifting supports the interpretation that plate-boundary forces likely drove overall separation of Arabia from Africa.Résumé : Dans l'ensemble du grand système du rift de la mer Rouge, les strates initiales syn-rifting et l'extension par failles d'âge cénozoïque tardif sont étroitement associées à un volcanisme basaltique alcalin. Les unités stratigraphiques plus anciennes précèdent la formation du rift ou ont été déposées durant l'affaiblissement mécanique de la lithosphère qui a précédé la rupture. Le superpanache est-africain est apparu dans le nord-est de l'Afrique à ϳ46 Ma, mais n'était pas accompagné d'une importante déformation par failles. Le rifting continental a commencé dans l'est et le centre du golfe d'Aden à ϳ31-30 Ma, en même temps que le début du volcanisme continental de plateau dans le nord de l'Éthiopie, en Érythrée et dans l'ouest du Yémen. Le volcanisme est apparu peu après à Derudeb, dans le sud du Soudan, et aux Harrats Hadan et As Sirat, en Arabie saoudite. À partir de ϳ26,5-25 Ma, une nouvelle phase de volcanisme a débuté avec l'intrusion d'un essaim de dykes allant du sud-est d'Afar jusque dans l'Ogaden. À 24-23 Ma, des dykes ont été mis en place presque simultanément au nord d'Afar et s'étalant sur plus de 2000 km jusque dans le nord de l'Égypte. L'intrusion de dykes a relié Afar au mini-panache plus petit du Caire et correspond au début de la distension et de la rupture lithosphériques dans le centre et le nord de la mer Rouge et le golfe de Suez. À ϳ21 Ma, l'intrusion de dykes sur toute la longueur de ...

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Section: Egyptian Red Sea Marginmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Late Oligocene -Early Miocene Structuration and Syn-rift Depmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early magmatism in the greater Red Sea rift: timing and significance

Bosworth¹,

Stöckli

2016

Can. J. Earth Sci.

105

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“…The timing of initiation of extension along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden rift margins has been the subject of detailed stratigraphic (e.g. Bosworth et al, 1998;Fantzotti and Sgavetti, 1998), geochronologic (e.g. Hughes and Filatoff, 1995;Ukstins et al, 2002;Wolfenden et al, 2005), and magmatic studies (e.g.…”

Section: Structural and Temporal Constraints On Rifting In The Mermentioning

confidence: 99%

Insights into extensional processes during magma assisted rifting: Evidence from aligned scoria cones

Rooney

Bastow

Keir

2011

Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research

125

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Mechanical and magmatic processes exert first-order control on the architecture and evolution of rifts. As a continental rift develops towards a new oceanic spreading centre, extension that is initially accommodated in a broad zone of faulting and ductile stretching must transition towards a narrow zone of focused magmatic intrusion. The Main Ethiopian Rift (MER), part of the East African Rift System, is an ideal location to study this transition because it captures rifting processes during continental breakup. In this contribution we synthesise geochemical data from scoria cones in the Wonji Fault Belt (WFB) and Silti-Debre Zeyit Fault Zone (SDFZ) in the MER to provide new constraints on the development of mantle melting columns and magmatic plumbing systems since the onset of rifting. We utilize the extensive geophysical and geochemical databases, collected in the Ethiopian Rift, to show that geochemical evidence of heterogeneity in the depth of the mantle melting column which produced Quaternary rift basalts correlates with lithospheric structure. When combined with existing observations of asymmetry across the rift in terms of depth of melting column and magmatic plumbing systems, it is evident that the mechanical structure of the rift, defined during the initial stages of breakup, has played a dominant role in the initial development of magma assisted rifting in the MER. Surface structures and crustal-scale geophysical studies have suggested the WFB is analogous to a sea-floor spreading centre. However, the geochemical characteristics of rift basalts are consistent with mantle tomography that shows no evidence beneath the MER for passive magmatic upwelling beneath discrete rift segments as is observed in the ocean basins. Collectively, the Ethiopian data show that the distribution of mantle melts during the initiation of magma assisted rifting is fundamentally influenced by lithospheric structures formed during earlier syn-rift stretching.

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“…The onset of major extension and rift initiation ($23 Ma) in the Gulf of Suez coincides with the beginning of syn-tectonic sedimentation (Bosworth et al, 2005). The Syn-rift sediments are Abu Zenima Formation red beds that are capped by a 22 Ma basalt flow in Sinai (Plaziat et al, 1998) and Nukhul Formation dolomitic limestone bearing Aquitanian (23.0-20.4 Ma) foraminifera in Wadi Nukhul in the central Gulf of Suez (Scott and Govean, 1985) and at Gebel el Zeit in the southern Gulf of Suez (Bosworth et al, 1998).…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 98%