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Geological Setting, Palaeoenvironment and Archaeology of the Red Sea pp 131–157Cite as

Oceanization Starts at Depth During Continental Rupturing in the Northern Red Sea

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Abstract

We present here 3D seismic reflection and gravity data obtained from an off-axis area of the NW Red Sea, as well as results of a study of gabbroic rocks recovered in the same area both from an oil well below a thick evaporitic-sedimentary sequence, and from a layered mafic complex exposed on the Brothers Islets. These new data provide constraints on the composition, depth of emplacement and age of early syn-rift magma intrusions into the deep crust. The Brothers are part of a series of sub-parallel NW-striking topographic highs associated with SW-dipping extensional fault blocks with significant footwall uplift during rifting that brought early syn-rift deep crustal rocks up to the seafloor. Assuming an important role played by magmatism in the evolution of narrow rifts helps to solve the controversy on the nature of the crust in the northern/central Red Sea (i.e., the crust outside the axial oceanic cells is either oceanic or it consists of melt-intruded extended continental crust). Gabbros show petrologic and geochemical signatures similar to those of MORB-type gabbroic cumulates and are compatible with their having been emplaced either in a continental or in an oceanic context. We explored the different hypotheses proposed to explain the lack of magnetic anomalies in the presence of oceanic crust in the northern Red Sea. Our results, combined with a review of all the geophysical and geological data in the area, suggest a stretched and thinned continental crust with few isolated sites of basaltic injections, in line with a model whereby asthenospheric melt intrusions contribute to weaken the lower crust enabling some decoupling between upper and lower crust, protracting upper crust extension and delaying crustal breakup. Our findings show that continental rupture in the northern Red Sea is preceded by intrusion of basaltic melts with MORB-type elemental and isotopic signature, that cooled forming gabbros at progressively shallower crustal depths as rifting progressed toward continental separation.

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Acknowledgements

The research was sponsored by the PRIN2012 Programme (Project 20125JKANY_002). The work was supported by the Saudi Geological Survey and the Italian Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche. Fruitful discussions during SGS workshop held in Jeddah on February 14–17, 2016 improved this work. We thank O. R. Berg for providing the gabbro sample from the QUSEIR B-1X drill hole. We are grateful to Y. Cai, A. Cipriani, C. Palmiotto, M. Seyler, G. Barabino and G. Traversa for carrying out part of the analytical work. We thank Dr. Z. A. Nawab, SGS President and Dr A. M. Al Attas, SGS Assistant President, and Dr N. Rasul for their support during this work. We particularly thank P. Betts, C. Ebinger and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive comments.

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  1. Istituto di Scienze Marine, CNR, Bologna, Italy

    Marco Ligi & Enrico Bonatti

  2. Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA

    Enrico Bonatti

  3. Apache Egypt Companies, 11 Street 281, New Maadi, Cairo, Egypt

    William Bosworth

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Sara Ronca

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Correspondence to Marco Ligi .

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  1. Center for Marine Geology, Saudi Geological Survey, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Najeeb M.A. Rasul

  2. Stewart Geophysical Consultants Pty. Ltd., College Park, SA, Australia

    Ian C.F. Stewart

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Ligi, M., Bonatti, E., Bosworth, W., Ronca, S. (2019). Oceanization Starts at Depth During Continental Rupturing in the Northern Red Sea. In: Rasul, N., Stewart, I. (eds) Geological Setting, Palaeoenvironment and Archaeology of the Red Sea. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99408-6_7

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