Abstract
Fragments of volcanic glass and basalt raised in six cores between 19° and 23°N, two from Atlantis II Deep, are Recent or sub-Recent in age, have specific gravity between 2.5 and 2.7 and refractive index of 1.607 ±.003. One sample contained laths of plagioclase (An 60–82). The rocks contain no normative nepheline and are poor in K2O (0.2 wt per cent). In these respects they resemble subalkaline oceanic basalts and the basalts of the island of Jebel Teir at the southern end of the axial trough. Their titania content is intermediate between that of alkaline basalts and oceanic subalkaline basalts and comparable with that of Ethiopian rift basalts. Their phosphorus and total iron contents are higher than that of oceanic subalkaline basalts and comparable to alkaline basalts of the African Rifts. Petrologically, as structurally, the axial trough of the Red Sea seems to be intermediate between rift valley and ocean.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Contribution No. 2183.
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Chase, R.L. (1969). Basalt from the Axial Trough of the Red Sea. In: Degens, E.T., Ross, D.A. (eds) Hot Brines and Recent Heavy Metal Deposits in the Red Sea. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-28603-6_12
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