Structural Evolution of the Rift of Suez

P. F. Burollet, P. Ott D'Estevou, C. Montenat, J. J. Jarrige

During late Oligocene-early Miocene time, the Suez rift was initiated by northeast-southwest compressional stress. This stress correlated with the compressional events recorded in the southern Syrian arc. It resulted in the initial "cracking" of the rift zone due to the reactivation of inherited faults with sinistral ("Aqaba" trend = north-south) and dextral ("Duwi" = Azimuth 110°) strike-slip movements. These faults bound large parallel-sided panels. Within these panels, blocks tilting along clysmic directions are the result of a unimodal pull-apart effect. During this early stage, between 20 and 25 Ma, basaltic effusions occurred.

Around 19 to 20 Ma, the end of block rotation indicates the major phase of crustal extension also ceased. Movements were replaced by large vertical displacements (horsts and grabens, shoulder uplift, deepening of the central trough). The width of this zone suggests the progressive advent of phenomena due to the convection of mantellic material.

From 6 to 16 Ma, fault movements had minor amplitudes, subordinate to the general basinward flexure of the margins. The same evolution is recorded in the Gulf of Suez and in the northern Red Sea. Later on, the Aqaba fault acted as a transfer fault between the Gulf of Suez, which remains an intracontinental rift, and the Red Sea basin, which evolves toward oceanic accretion.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.