Rifting and Sediments in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf Regions

Rifting and Sediments in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf Regions is a unique text that covers a wide range of topics related to the tectonics and geology of the Red Sea and Arabian (Persian) Gulf region. This book is a collection of invited and peer-reviewed chapters contributed by active researchers around the world.

The topics covered in this book include tectonics, magmatism, and lithology, particularly in the Red Sea area. The book also delves into the sediments and evaporites of the Red Sea and Gulf. As the area around the Arabian Peninsula is prone to earthquakes, the seismic hazard estimated in the Red Sea region is also covered by several chapters. Each chapter presents new data and offers extensive lists of references for the reader to explore further.

With the ongoing debates regarding the structure of the Red Sea, this book serves as an excellent resource for researchers and any individuals interested in the geology of these two unique seas.

1. Introduction to rifting and sediments in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf regions

Najeeb M.A. Rasul and Ian C.F. Stewart

RIFTING AND REGIONAL STRUCTURE

2. Tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the northwestern Red Sea, Egypt - a review

Ken McClay, Samir M. Khalil, William Bosworth and Marta Perez Gussinye

3. The Nubian-Arabian shield mantle and Cenozoic magmatism of western Arabia: new constraints from radiogenic isotopes and olivine geochemistry

Alessio Sanfilippo, Mattia Bonazzi, Yue Cai, Najeeb Rasul, Luigi Vigliotti and Marco Ligi

4. Shield suture zones control positions of oceanic spreading segment discontinuities in the central Red Sea

A.Y. Izzeldin and Neil C. Mitchell

5. The tectonic stability of Arabia

Neil C. Mitchell and William Bosworth

6. The effects of mantle plumes on the Red Sea rifting and Cenozoic volcanism in the Arabian plate

Sung-Joon Chang, Jung-A Lim, and P. Martin Mai

7. Structure of the continent-ocean transition in the Red Sea from gravity modelling of seismic refraction profiles off Sudan

Oke I. Okwokwo and Neil C. Mitchell

8. Crustal structure and major tectonic boundaries of the northern Red Sea area of Egypt

Salah Saleh

9. Anisotropic seismic structure of the northern East African Rift System and Red Sea from surface waves

Emma L. Chambers, Nicholas Harmon, Catherine A. Rychert and Derek Keir

10. Oceanic basement roughness in the central Red Sea

Wen Shi, Neil C. Mitchell, Lara M. Kalnins, Ian C.F. Stewart and A.Y. Izzeldin

MAGMATISM AND LITHOLOGY

11. Neo-formed oceanic crust and salt basin splitting by igneous intrusions in the Red Sea and the South Atlantic

Webster Ueipass Mohriak

12. New tectonic subdivision of the Basement Complex, NE Sudan, proposed for correlation across the Arabian-Nubian shield

Abdel Halim Hassan El Nadi

13. The origin of plagioclase lherzolite from Zabargad Island, northern Red Sea

Ali A. Khudeir, Kirsten Nicholson, Tyrone O. Rooney and Mohamed A. Abu El-Rus

SALT IN THE RED SEA

14. The Global Salt Cycle (GSC) model applied to the Red Sea area

Martin Torvald Hovland, Håkon Rueslåtten and Hans Konrad Johnsen

15. Origin of brines and salts on the Red Sea bottom - the serpentinite perspective

Vittorio Scribano

MARINE AND LITTORAL SEDIMENTS

16. Primary and diagenetic evaporite minerals in sabkhas and saline pans (Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coasts)

Mahmoud A. Aref, Gerhard H. Bachmann, Rushdi J. Taj, Ali A. Khawfany, Waheed F. Alnasser and Ammar Manaa

17. Microbially-induced sedimentary surface structures (MISS) from the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf coasts

Mahmoud A. Aref

18. Holocene sea level highstand evidence from beachrock and carbonate terraces along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast

Ammar Mannaa and Brian G. Jones

19. Biostratigraphically constrained Neogene palaeoenvironments of the Red Sea rift complex

G. Wyn Hughes and Osman Varol

20. Surface shear wave properties of carbonate seafloor sediments in the Strait of Hormuz

Angus I. Best and Najeeb M.A. Rasul

GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES

21. Red Sea geothermal belt: Potential clean energy source to power NEOM and nearby countries

Varun Chandrasekhar and Dornadula Chandrasekharam

EARTHQUAKE HAZARD

22. Seismotectonics and seismic hazard studies in and around the Red Sea Rift

Mahmoud Elhadidy, Hanan Gaber, Hazem Badreldin and Sherif Mohamed El-Nashar

23. Earthquake hazard and risk analysis of the Red Sea region

E. Fergany and Y. Fahjan

24. Seismic hazard and tectonics of the central and southern Red Sea

Naila Babiker

Najeeb M.A. Rasul obtained a Ph.D. in Geological Oceanography from the University of Wales, Swansea, U.K. He was with the Faculty of Marine Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, before joining the Saudi Geological Survey, where he was a Technical Adviser until 2022, and Head of the Center for Marine Geology from 2003 to 2010. He has held key research positions at the Geological and Geophysical Research Systems in Canada, the Challenger Division for Seafloor Processes at the Southampton Oceanography Centre, currently NOC, Southampton, and Environment Canada. He has conducted research cruises with European Union research centres, including the Institute of Marine Sciences (ISMAR), Italy, to the Red Sea and the IOC-UNESCO (TTR programme) in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. He was a EUROMARGINS and Saudi Scientific Coordinator. He has also been involved in research projects as chief scientist and principal investigator in the Western Basin of Lake Erie, the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and the Arabian Sea, and currently the Red Sea. His research interests have concentrated on both shallow and deepwater sedimentary processes, depositional mechanisms and environmental aspects.

Ian C.F. Stewart received a Ph.D. in seismology from the University of Adelaide, South Australia. He is an independent geophysical consultant based in Adelaide, and has worked for numerous mining and oil companies in Australia, the Middle East, and elsewhere. From 1974 until 1982, he was with the Department of Earth Sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, where he taught geophysics. He then carried out research for Saudi Aramco in the Exploration Department in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia from 1982 until 1996, and was in charge of the development and application of potential field methods throughout the Kingdom. Later he was involved in geophysical exploration in Australia. He was the Geophysical Technical Adviser to the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS),