21. Geologic Background of the Red Sea1
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21. GEOLOGIC BACKGROUND OF THE RED SEA1 Robert G. Coleman, U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California INTRODUCTION the Red Sea shelf. South of Jidda, Saudi Arabia, the shelf merges imperceptibly with the coastal plain; north of Jidda New concepts related to the mobility of the earth's crust it is narrower and interrupted by rather sharp topographic have focused attention on the Red Sea area. Anyone breaks. The coastal plains broaden south of Jidda and familiar with the geographic outline of western Arabia and widen to 50 km in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Volcanic flows northeast Africa is struck by the apparent jig-saw fit that cover parts of the plain in Arabia and Ethiopia. North of appears possible in closing the Red Sea. Indeed, the modern latitude 22°N the coastal plains tend to be narrower, with paradigm of plate tectonics would have the Arabian terraces well above the present shoreline. The general aspect Peninsula drifting away from the African continent. Con- is one of shoreline emergence to the north and of siderable research has been done in the Red Sea area, both submergence to the south. from the standpoint of demonstrating plate tectonics and in Landward from the littoral zone and coastal plain, the exploration for oil and metals. The purpose of this paper is topography varies considerably and is best described in to consolidate some of the geologic and geophysical segments. A magnificent erosional escarpment extends information on a generalized geologic map at the scale of unbroken southward from Taif in Saudi Arabia to Taizz in 1:2,000,000 (Plate 1). Yemen, forming the crest of the tilted Arabian block. The Even though all original sources were not available to the crest follows an extremely irregular erosional pattern that is author, it is felt that the present compilation will provide a subparallel to the coastline, extending inland as far as 120 basis for guiding further work. All map compilations of this km in some places and less than 50 km in others. In Yemen, sort become anachronistic upon printing and the author altitudes of over 3700 meters have been measured, and in would, therefore, welcome all new information or construc- Saudi Arabia the scarp crest averages more than 2000 tive criticism. Whiteman (1970) has made an appeal for the meters (U.S. Geological Survey, 1963). No major normal construction of a Red Sea structural map, and for good faults parallel to the Red Sea or to the escarpment have reasons. This map, however, is not considered as a been recognized between the coastal plain and the crest. In substitute and it has many of the built-in problems Ethiopia, a similar scarp bounds the coastal plain on the discussed by Whiteman. west, reaching altitudes of over 3000 meters. Geologic evidence here shows a close relationship between faulting PHYSIOGRAPHY and the scarp (Mohr, 1962). At Massawa, the scarp turns The Red Sea occupies an elongate depression over 2000 southward and leaves the Red Sea trend, connecting with km long. In the northern part, shorelines are only 180 km the East African rift system. South of Massawa, broadening apart; southward, the gap widens to 360 km. At the south of the East African rift system has produced the mag- end the flat-lying, coral-topped Farasan and Dahlak nificent Afar Depression. Extensive volcanism and block Archipelagoes rise slightly more than 60 meters above sea faulting in the Afar Depression have produced an incredible level and are part of a shallow shelf extending nearly to the mixture of interior basins and volcanic landscape. center of the Red Sea (MacFadyen, 1930). The southern The coastal plains in Sudan and southern Egypt are part of the Red Sea narrows (28 km) to the straits of Bab narrow and not bordered by scarps. Instead, the lower el-Mandeb, where it connects with the Gulf of Aden. North slopes merge seaward as interdigitating fans and pediments of the straits a series of volcanic islands occupies the medial broken by outliers of older rocks (Whiteman, 1971). A part of the Red Sea (MacFadyen, 1932). The most recent similar situation exists along the coastal plain on the east bathymetric chart of the Red Sea (Laughton, 1970) reveals side of the Red Sea at these latitudes. The northern end of a very distinct main trough extending northward from the the Red Sea bifurcates into the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf Zebayir Islands to the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. of Aqaba, the former controlled primarily by normal The main trough is cut by an axial trough varying from 30 faulting, the latter by wrench faults. The narrow coastal km in width near 20°N and narrowing southward where it plains here climb directly into fault-bounded blocks of may be 5 to 14 km wide (Plate 1). Selected topographic basement rock less than 5 to 10 km from the shoreline. cross-sections reveal steep-sided walls in the axial trough and a very irregular bottom topography. A line connecting GEOLOGY the deepest parts of the axial trough reveals sharp changes in direction, with apparent offsets. High temperature brine Stratigraphic Record pools and hydrothermal sediments are present within the Paleogeographic reconstructions (Swartz and Arden, axial trough. The bottom topography is shallow and flat on 1960; Said, 1962; Mohr, 1962; Brown, 1972) for the Mesozoic show Jurassic seas spreading northward to Massawa and Jizan, and the shoreline trending directly 1 Publication authorized by the Director, U. S. Geological Survey. across the Red Sea at latitude 17°N. To the northwest the 813 R. G. COLEMAN Jurassic shoreline crosses the Sinai Peninsula trending continued in the Afar Depression and in western Saudi east-west at about latitude 29°N. By the end of the Arabia. As the Red Sea depression continued to subside, Cretaceous period the Tethyan Sea reached southward to uplift continued in the Arabian-Yemen block and the approximately latitude 21°N (Whiteman, 1968, 1971; Ethiopian segment. Karpoff, 1957; Carella and Scarpa, 1962). In the south, At the beginning of the Pliocene, marine oozes and regressive Cretaceous marine facies are present in Ethiopia marginal elastics began to be deposited on the evaporite and southern Yemen extending northward only to latitude sequence, signalling a drastic change in the sedimentary 13°N. The marine sedimentary record for the Mesozoic record. The Pliocene marine invasion is considered to have provides no strong evidence that the Red Sea depression come from the Indian Ocean rather than the Mediterranean existed during this time. Indirect evidence of tectonic because the latter was separated from the Red Sea during activity during Mesozoic times in and around the Red Sea is the early Pliocene by uplift of the Isthmus of Suez (Swartz generally lacking. However, interlayering of basaltic rocks and Arden, 1960). The lack of Miocene salt deposits in the with Cretaceous sedimentary rocks signals the beginning of axial trough of the Red Sea has been confirmed by drilling emplacement of the thick trap rock sequences in Yemen on Leg 23, Deep Sea Drilling Project. In the axial trough a (Guekens, 1966). thin veneer of sediments overlies basalt that is considered to The early Tertiary sedimentary record in the Red Sea have been extruded into the axial trough (Gass, 1970). area is incomplete and has been the subject of debate. It is Continuous seismic reflection profiles made across the shelf generally agreed that during Eocene time transgressive of the Red Sea confirm the presence of a strong reflector at marine deposits developed in the northern Sinai and Egypt depths up to 500 meters, which is now considered to and that Eocene rocks may occur as far south as Mag- represent the top of the evaporite section (Phillips and hersum Island, Sudan (Said, 1962; Whiteman, 1968; Sestini, Ross, 1970; Ross et al., 1972). Assuming that the salt once 1965; Carella and Scarpa, 1962). Shorelines of early and extended across the axial trough, the seismic profiles reveal middle Eocene age are shown to extend across the southern a separation of 48 to 74 km across the main trough. Rates end of the Red Sea, and by the end of the Eocene epoch of deposition of Pliocene and Pleistocene sediments in the the horn of Africa had completely emerged (Mohr, 1962). southern part of the Red Sea were distinctly higher than Oligocene sediments have not been positively identified those observed at the latitude of Jidda, indicating con- along most of the Red Sea coastal plains; however, tinued uplift and erosion along the southern margins of the deposition of the Red Series in the Danakil Depression is Red Sea (Ross et al., 1972). Within the Afar Depression a considered to have begun in the late Oligocene (Bannert et thick section (~975 m) of evaporites overlies the Red Series al., 1970; Barberi et al., 1972). Oligocene sediments were (Holwerda and Hutchinson, 1968). These evaporites are encountered in exploratory drilling for iron ore in Wadi considered to be Pleistocene in age and are probably Fatima east of Jeddah (Shanti, 1966). Oligocene and evidence of intermittent connections with the Red Sea Miocene marine sediments are found on the south coast of through the Zula Gulf (Hutchinson and Engels, 1970). the Arabian Peninsula (Beydoun, 1964). Deep wells along All along the present shorelines there are recent coral the western margins of the Red Sea have penetrated shale reef deposits of limestone, some of which are as much as containing Oligocene fossils and interlayered basalt that 300 meters thick. Along the east margin near Jizan, these gives Oligocene radiometric ages (Whiteman, 1968). Further deposits are rapidly buried by the clastic debris brought deep drilling will resolve the question of whether Oligocene into the littoral zone from the high erosional scarps.