Late Oligocene and Miocene different seaways to the Red Sea–Gulf of Suez rift and the Gulf of Aqaba–Dead Sea basins

Abstract

Intense analysis of geological, geophysical and particularly new available biostratigraphic data from the Gulf of Suez (GS), Red Sea (RS) Gulf of Aqaba (GA) and the Eastern Mediterranean significantly clarifies the evolution of these continental rifts toward new accretionary plate boundaries. RS–GS continental rifting started at ~28Ma and experienced occasional sea water floods. The first synchronous flooding of Mediterranean Sea water into both GS–RS and proto-GA tectonic basin prevailed between Late Chattian (~24.5Ma) and Late Aquitanian (~20.5Ma). Contemporaneous flooding of Neotethys sea-water from the east, into the central Dead Sea fault tectonic basins concentrated in Lake Kinneret–Jordan Valley with no connection to the Levant Basin. The second flooding occurred between Late Burdigalian (~16.5Ma) and late Langhian (~14.4Ma). Since then the Mediterranean seaway to GS sealed off by an isostatic uplift of northern Sinai High as a response to increased loading of the Miocene Nile sedimentary cone within the Levant Basin. A compulsory condition for these two flooding events into the RS system was coeval Mediterranean sea-level highstands relative to the Levant continental terrain, represented by onlap of bioclastic and reefal limestones on central Israel foothills. The younger Tortonian highstand flooded only the newly formed Lower Galilee rift in northern Israel. Since the Pliocene, the RS–GS–GA tectonic basins were flooded by the Indian Ocean seaway through the Gulf of Aden. Increased faulting along the GS during the Langhian event coincides with the acceleration of the Dead Sea transform indicating their mutual tectonic activity. Since Mid Miocene time, the Dead Sea transform accommodated most of the plate separation between Africa and Arabia. Cenozoic paleo-seaways and floods portray the structural chronology of continental plate boundaries in the RS–GS–GA–Dead Sea transform, adjacent to the Levant continental margin.