Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by DAVISON, I. Articles by YELLAND, A. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Geological evolution of the southeastern Red Sea Rift margin, Republic of Yemen

¹ Department of Geology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom TW20 0EX
² Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Sana'a University, P.O. Box 1247, Republic of Yemen
³ Cairn Energy, Cairn House, 61 Dublin Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom EH3 6NL

The tectonic evolution of the southeastern margin of the Red Sea Rift in western Yemen has been investigated using a multi-disciplinary field study of an east-west transect between Al Hudaydah and Sana'a. Slow subsidence of up to 1 km occurred over the area during a 100 m.y. period before rifting. There was a major episode of flood volcanism between ca. 30 and 20 Ma, and important extensional faulting began after the eruption of the volcanic rocks and ceased before middle to late Miocene sediments and volcanic rocks were deposited unconformably on top of rotated fault blocks on the coastal Tihama Plain. Surface uplift has produced the Yemen highlands, whose highest peak reaches an elevation of 3660 m. This is attributed to plume heating and eruption of >3000 m of volcanic rocks. Apatite fission-track ages indicate early to middle Miocene exhumational cooling ages, postdating the major volcanic phase and contemporaneous with rifting.

Volcanism was accompanied by emplacement of subvertical dike swarms, which generally strike north-northwest to northwest, broadly parallel to the Red Sea coastline. Major faults indicate northeast-southwest-directed extension. Large granitic sheets and plutons (up to 25 km wide) intruded the volcanic rocks. Approximately 30 km of extension has taken place across a 75-km-wide zone (β = 1.7) in 6-8 m.y.

The relative timing of volcanism followed by extension and uplift does not fit conventional models of passive or active rifting. We suggest that the proto-Red Sea Rift was caused by regional plate stresses that exploited lithospheric weakening caused by the Afar plume. Appreciable doming only occurred after the main episode of volcanism, which suggests that magmas extruded before maximum thermal expansion of the lithosphere took place.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. R. Cochran and G. D. Karner Constraints on the deformation and rupturing of continental lithosphere of the Red Sea: the transition from rifting to drifting Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2007; 282(1): 265 - 289. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Z. Garfunkel and M. Beyth Constraints on the structural development of Afar imposed by the kinematics of the major surrounding plates Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2006; 259(1): 23 - 42. [Abstract] [PDF]

				E. Wolfenden, C. Ebinger, G. Yirgu, P. R. Renne, and S. P. Kelley Evolution of a volcanic rifted margin: Southern Red Sea, Ethiopia Geological Society of America Bulletin, July 1, 2005; 117(7-8): 846 - 864. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. F. Stockli Application of Low-Temperature Thermochronometry to Extensional Tectonic Settings Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, January 1, 2005; 58(1): 411 - 448. [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Tesfaye, D. J. Harding, and T. M. Kusky Early continental breakup boundary and migration of the Afar triple junction, Ethiopia Geological Society of America Bulletin, September 1, 2003; 115(9): 1053 - 1067. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				FIRST OCCURRENCE OF XENOPUS (ANURA: PIPIDAE) ON THE ARABIAN PENINSULA: A NEW SPECIES FROM THE UPPER OLIGOCENE OF YEMEN Journal of Paleontology, July 1, 2001; 75(4): 870 - 882.

				N. H. Kenea, N. H. KENEA, C. J. EBINGER, and D. C. REX Late Oligocene volcanism and extension in the southern Red Sea Hills, Sudan Journal of the Geological Society, March 1, 2001; 158(2): 285 - 294. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. J. Ebinger, T. Yemane, D. J. Harding, S. Tesfaye, S. Kelley, and D.C. Rex Rift deflection, migration, and propagation: Linkage of the Ethiopian and Eastern rifts, Africa Geological Society of America Bulletin, February 1, 2000; 112(2): 163 - 176. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Hughes and A. Collings Seismic and volcanic hazards affecting the vulnerability of the Sana'a area of Yemen Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2000; 171(1): 355 - 372. [Abstract] [PDF]

				H. Fossen and J. Hesthammer Structural geology of the Gullfaks Field, northern North Sea Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 1998; 127(1): 231 - 261. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J.A. Baker, M.A. Menzies, M.F. Thirlwall, and C.G. MacPherson Petrogenesis of Quaternary Intraplate Volcanism, Sana'a, Yemen: Implications for Plume-Lithosphere Interaction and Polybaric Melt Hybridization J. Petrology, October 1, 1997; 38(10): 1359 - 1390. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. I. Omar and M. S. Steckler Fission Track Evidence on the Initial Rifting of the Red Sea: Two Pulses, No Propagation Science, November 24, 1995; 270(5240): 1341 - 1344. [Abstract] [PDF]