--> Abstract: Gulf of Aqaba Paleostresses Status and Rifting Events, by Abdelwahab Noufal and M. Dia Mahmoud; #90077 (2008)

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Gulf of Aqaba Paleostresses Status and Rifting Events

Abdelwahab Noufal1* and M. Dia Mahmoud2
1Cairo University, Egypt
2GEOPEX Limited, Egypt
*[email protected]

Natural fractures and faults are the primary pathways for hydrocarbon migration along with production in many reservoirs. In addition, critically stressed faults (pre-existing faults active in the present stress field) can systematically control permeability, and hence high fluid flow. The Gulf of Aqaba represents the arm of the Red Sea, which separates between the Arabian Plate and the Sinai Peninsula; it considered as a part of the complex East African Rift System. Despite its unique strike-slip fault system that is considered one of the world’s finest natural laboratories for investigating the different stages of development of strike-slip basins, it is the least understood of all basin types. This field-based study will integrate the paleostress status of the Gulf of Aqaba blocks including Wadi El-Ghaib, Morakh District, Wadi Quseib and Wadi Tueiba-Wadi Taba. Slip data of more than 3,000 minor faults were measured. Processing and analyses of this data, set in reference to detailed mapping and field relations of the syn-rifting and pre-rifting lithologic units, revealed four tectonic events through the geologic history of the gulf. These are: (1) Aquitanian-Burdigalian (Early Rifting) event of s1 43°/WSW, s2 45°/ESE and s3 10°/SE; (2) Late Middle to Late Miocene (Synrifting) event of s1 35°/SW, s2 42°/SW and s3 12°/SE; (3) Pliocene (Late rifting) event of s1 38°/SSW, s2 of 50°/SE and s3 of 10°/SW; and (4) Post Pliocene-Late Holocene (Postrifting) of s1 50°/SSE, s2 of 30°/SSW and s3 of 10°/SSW.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90077©2008 GEO 2008 Middle East Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Bahrain