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 deposition within the N-S-trending Ghazalat-Tehenu basin of the Western Desert, the Jafr basin of southern Jordan, and along a proto-Gulf of Suez trend. Gentle arching occurred at the end Silurian, end Devonian, end Serpukhovian and Late Carboniferous. The opening of the Neotethys in the Permian marked the onset of a new geodynamic episode. Extensional faulting was pronounced along the present Mediterranean margin region from the Permian to the Jurassic. Early Cretaceous intra-continental rifting occurred in the E-W-trending 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 and marking the onset of the main Syrian arc folding and reverse faulting. By the Campanian-Maastrichtian, extension resumed, with subsidence focused in the Sirt, Abu Gharadiq and Azraq-Sirhan basins. A compressive pulse marked the Cretaceous-Paleocene transition, followed by renewed rifting during the Paleocene-Eocene in the Sirt basins and El Gindi basin of northern Egypt. At approximately the Bartonian-Priabonian boundary, strong dextral transpression again affected northern Egypt and the E-W Aswan fault swarm. In the Late Oligocene, the Gulf of Suez-Red Sea rift initiated, often reactivating older tectonic trends. During the Middle Miocene, the Red Sea divergent plate boundary abandoned the Gulf of Suez and broke through the Arabian plate 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 along the central Sinai-Cairo fault zone and the Gulf of Aqaba-Red Sea plate boundary. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.