Phanerozoic geodynamic evolution of northeastern Africa and the northwestern Arabian platform

The Northeast African-Arabian plate formed a segment of the passive margins of, successively, the Paleotethys and the Neotethys. During the Paleozoic, rifting events were relatively minor, but epicontinental sagging focused d eposition within the N-S-trending Ghazalat-Tehenu basin of the Western Dese rt, the Jafr basin of southern Jordan, and along a proto-Gulf of Suez trend . Gentle arching occurred at the end Silurian, end Devonian, end Serpukhovi an and Late Carboniferous. The opening of the Neotethys in the Permian mark ed the onset of a new geodynamic episode. Extensional faulting was pronounc ed along the present Mediterranean margin region from the Permian to the Ju rassic. Early Cretaceous intra-continental rifting occurred in the E-W-tren ding arm of the Sirt basin, and in the Abu Gharadiq and the Shushan-Matruh basins of the Western Desert. In the Santonian, a major shift in tectonics swept the Tethyan realm, producing dextral transpression across NE Africa a nd marking the onset of the main Syrian are folding and reverse faulting. B y the Campanian-Maastrichtian. extension resumed, with subsidence focused i n the Sirt, Abu Gharadiq and Azraq-Sirhan basins. A compressive pulse mal k ed the Cretaceous-Paleocene transition, followed by renewed rifting during the Paleocene-Eocene in the Sirt basins and El Gindi basin of northern Egyp t. At approximately the Bartonian-Priabonian boundary, strong dextral trans pression again affected northern Egypt and the E-W Aswan fault swarm. In th e Late Oligocene, the Gulf of Suez-Red Sea rift initiated, often reactivati ng older tectonic trends. During the Middle Miocene. the Red Sea divergent plate boundary abandoned the Gulf of Suez and broke through the Arabian pla te via the Gulf of Aqaba-Dead Sea transform fault, establishing the present -day plate kinematic framework. A rapid rotation of stress fields occurred in the Late Pleistocene, with active faulting continuing to the Recent alon g the central Sinai-Cairo fault zone and the Gulf of Aqaba-Red Sea plate bo undary. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V, All lights reserved.