Chapter 38 - Modern sedimentation in the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba): a review

Abstract

The Gulf of Elat at present reflects conditions which occurred along the East Coast margin of the United States during the Mesozoic. Results of recent exploratory drilling on the outer continental shelf and slope of the East Coast of North America can in part be explained in terms of similarities between the two areas; therefore, a review of modern sedimentation in the Gulf of Elat is of interest. The mid-oceanic rift system changes from a spreading center in the Red Sea to a transform fault zone in the Gulf of Elat (Gulf of Elat – Dead Sea Rift) with the Gulf of Elat occupying the southernmost of a linear series of grabens. Under arid conditions, carbonates, including reef complexes, are deposited along the shelf break while clastics derived from Nubian granites are contemporaneously deposited in alluvial fan complexes which spill out onto a narrow shelf and in deep-sea fan (turbidite) complexes. A similar condition existed during the Mesozoic along the East Coast of the United States. It was also a rift zone with clastics from the Taconic and Acadian orogenies interfingering with carbonate reefs. Along the East Coast at this time the shelf-slope transition was abrupt as it is in the Gulf of Elat today. The various environments which parallel the Gulf of Elat coast may be divided into subaerial and submarine and include fans, sabkhas , dunes, berms and beaches, submerged reefs fringing the shore and the narrow lagoons which separate the reefs from the shore. Porosity and permeability are created or enhanced in subaerially exposed reefs which parallel the modern shoreline.