Fault propagation and climatic control of sedimentation on the Ghoubbet Rift Floor: insights from the Tadjouraden cruise in the western Gulf of Aden

A detailed geophysical survey of the Ghoubbet Al Kharab (Djibouti) clarifie s the small-scale morphology of the last submerged rift segment of the prop agating Aden ridge before it enters the Afar depression. The bathymetry rev eals a system of antithetic normal faults striking N130 degreesE, roughly a ligned with those active along the Asal rift. The 3.5 kHz sub-bottom profil er shows how the faults cut distinct layers within the recent, up to 60 m t hick, sediment cover on the floor of the basin. A large volcanic structure, in the centre of the basin, the 'Ghoubbet' volcano, separates two sediment ary flats. The organization of volcanism and the planform of faulting, with en echelon subrifts along the entire Asal-Ghoubbet rift, appear to confirm the westward propagation of this segment of the plate boundary. Faults thr oughout the rift have been active continuously for the last 8400 yr, but ce rtain sediment layers show different offsets. The Varying offsets of these layers, dated from cores previously retrieved in the southern basin, imply Holocene vertical slip rates of 0.3-1.4 mm yr(-1) and indicate a major decr ease in sedimentation rate after about 6000 yr BP. The two central sub-basi ns E and W of the volcano have distinct depositional histories and the Ghou bbet may have been isolated from the sea between 10 and 72 kyr BP.