Abstract
Rift formation is a crucial topic in global tectonics. The Yemen rift-related area is one of the most important provinces, being connected to the rifting processes of the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and Afar Triangle. In this paper, a review of the Yemen volcanic province and its relations with the Red Sea rifting are presented. Tertiary continental extension in Yemen resulted in the extrusion of large volumes of effusive rocks. This magmatism is divided in the Oligo-Miocene Yemen Trap Series (YTS) separated by an unconformity from the Miocene-Recent Yemen Volcanic Series (YVS). Magmas of the YTS were erupted during the synrift phase and correlate with the first stage of sea-floor spreading of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (30 - 15 Ma), whereas the magmas of the YVS were emplaced during the post rift phase (10 - 0 Ma). A continental within plate character is recognized for both the YTS and YVS basalts. The YTS volcanic rocks are contemporaneous with, and geochemically similar to, the Ethiopian rift volcanism, just as the volcanic fields of the YVS are geochemically alike to most of the Saudi Arabian volcanics. YTS and YVS have analogous SiO2 ranges, but YVS tend to have, on average, higher alkalis and MgO contents than YTS. Fractional crystallization processes dominate geochemical variations of both series. Primitive magmas (MgO > 7.0%) are enriched in incompatible elements and LREEs with respect to primitive mantle, but YVS are more enriched than YTS. To first order, the different geochemical patterns agree with different degrees of partial melting of an astenospheric mantle source: 25% - 30% of partial melting for YTS and 10% - 3% for YVS. Secondly, the higher degree of enrichment in incompatible elements of YVS reflects also greater contribution of a lithospheric mantle component in their source region.
Highlights
The Tertiary continental magmatism of Yemen was associated to the early opening phases of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and was part of the Afro-Arabian rift system (AARS), which included the Ethiopian Rift and the Afar Triangle (Figure 1(a)).During Late Eocene to recent, the geological evolution of North Africa was dominated by the development of the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden-East Africa Rift System that resulted in the separation of the Arabian plate
Magmas of the Yemen Trap Series (YTS) were erupted during the synrift phase and correlate with the first stage of sea-floor spreading of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (30 - 15 Ma), whereas magmas of the Yemen Volcanic Series (YVS) were ascended during the post rift phase, consistent with the sea-floor spreading model (10 - 0 Ma)
2) The YTS are contemporaneous with, and geochemically similar to, the Ethiopian Trap Series, whereas the more alkaline YVS are geochemically similar to the Saudi Arabian volcanics
Summary
The Tertiary continental magmatism of Yemen was associated to the early opening phases of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and was part of the Afro-Arabian rift system (AARS), which included the Ethiopian Rift and the Afar Triangle (Figure 1(a)). In the late Oligocene-early Miocene through to the present time, large volumes of flood basalts emplaced at discrete eruptive centres along the western margin of the Arabian plate from the Gulf of Aden to the Mediterranean. These plateau basalts are concentrated on the Arabian side of the Red Sea without matching counterparts on the Nubian plate (Figure 1(a)), and represent one of the largest areas of predominantly alkali-olivine basalts in the world. This work presents a review of petrological data for the rift-related volcanic rocks of Yemen
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