Structural characteristics of the Suez rift margins

Abstract

Field study of the Hadahid Block (the eastern margin of the central half-graben of the Suez rift) indicates two listric normal faults at its eastern and western boundaries, the rift-bounding fault and the Hadahid Fault, respectively. These faults were affected by two episodes of movement. The earlier movement (at the initial, Neogene rift opening) led to equal displacements on the two faults whereas the later movement (at the mid-Clysmic event, l7 Ma ago) caused the Hadahid Fault to bound the deep part of the central half-graben. A similar conclusion is also reached for the western margin of the southern half-graben of the rift (Esh El Mellaha and Zeit Blocks). The two listric faults bounding the margin blocks in these two oppositely tilted half-grabens (Hadahid and Esh El Mellaha Blocks) join at depth into a ramp-flat detachment. This geometry of the rift-bounding faults represents an intermediate stage in the evolution of rift basins. It is preceded by the early rifting stage where extension is less and oppositely tilted half-grabens are formed (e.g. the ancestral Red Sea-Gulf of Suez rift). Increased extension at later stages leads to the prevailance of one system of detachment instead of oppositely dipping detachments of adjacent half-grabens. The central and southern Red Sea have perhaps had this geometry before the onset of seafloor spreading.