Article,

Contrasting styles of the eastern and western margins of the southern Red Sea: the 1988 SONNE experiment

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Tectonophysics, 198 (2-4): 329--353 (Nov 20, 1991)
DOI: 10.1016/0040-1951(91)90159-P

Abstract

Seismic investigations in the Sudanese and Yemeni sections of the Red Sea showed contrasting structural styles across the two surveyed areas of the opposing flanks. Off Sudan, seaward of an about 50 km broad zone of stretched continental crust, different domains of oceanic crust were identified. The oldest of these domains was found under an up to 6 km thick cover of sediments which include a 1 to 2 km thick pre-evaporite sequence. These sediments are interpreted to be part of a pull apart basin generated during the initial stages of Red Sea evolution. Towards the Red Sea axial trough, a structural boundary separates this from younger oceanic crust which is covered only by post-evaporite sediments. This sequence thins progressively from about 800 m at the boundary to zero at the axial trough.Off Yemen, in contrast, oceanic crust is confined to the axial trough zone, which terminates southward of 16N. Further south to 14N, no oceanic crust has yet been formed. Stretched continental crust was found across the entire flank of the southern Red Sea and at the Tihama coastal plain. Further inland, beginning at the escarpment, the crust thickens in several major steps to a thickness of 35 km in central Yemen.

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