Interpretation of an aeromagnetic survey of the African Red Sea shelf and coastal strip between 23.6° and 25°N

Abstract

Aeromagnetic data interpretation, in the southern Egyptian part of the African Red Sea shelf and its coastal strip, was made. The data suggest that this shelf can be divided into two sections: a southern section of rifting oceanic crust, of thickness comparable to that of oceanic layer 2, and a northern one of continental crust apparently subjected to basic volcanicity related to initial Red Sea rifting. Seafloor spreading, in the southern section, is shown as continuous for 13 m.y., commencing 22 m.y. ago, and may have taken place under the evaporite cover; an argument which may be supported by available borehole data. Aeromagnetic anomalies in the northern section may illustrate the juxtaposition of basic magma, incident to initial rifting, with shield rocks. The coastal strip aeromagnetic anomalies are likely due to the well-known and widespread basic volcanicity prevalent in eastern Egypt in the Oligocene and early Miocene and which may have preceeded the actual Red Sea rifting.