Synrift sedimentation in the Gulf of Suez rift controlled by eustatic sea level variations

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985 · Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6318736

Perry, S K; Schamel, S

Laterally persistent stratigraphic variations in the southern Gulf of Suez rift indicate that eustatic variations in sea level predominate over local tectonic effects in controlling Neogene basin-fill sedimentation. Low sea level allows extensive erosion of tilt-block crests and rift shoulders, sending clastic aprons into the intervening subbasins and allowing evaporite deposition. High sea level minimizes clastic input, allowing marls and shales to build up off structure and reefs to form on and around tilt blocks. Thus variations in sediment character indicate relative sea level. Early rifting events in the upper Oligocene are marked by deposition of continental red beds. Overlying lowest Miocene clastics and evaporites are cut by a lower Burdigalian unconformity, indicating a minor transgression in the Aquitanian. Above a disconformity, laterally varying clastics and evaporites suggest regression followed by intermittent shallow-water conditions. A higher unconformity is overlain by thick cyclic evaporites representing periodic flooding and drying of the rift, a result of sea level remaining close to the height of the Suez sill to the north. A major Messinian unconformity cuts the section, indicating major regression, and is overlain by largely clastic sediments of both continental and marine affinities, showing rapid sea level fluctuations. Regional synrift sedimentation has been controlled more by eustatic sea level change, modified by the Suez sill to the north, than by tectonic movements within the rift.

• Research Organization: Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6318736
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510489-
• Journal Information: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
GULF OF SUEZ
RIFT ZONES
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
SEDIMENTATION
STRATIGRAPHY
DEPOSITION
EVAPORITES
PLATE TECTONICS
SEA LEVEL
SEDIMENTS
VARIATIONS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOLOGY
LEVELS
RED SEA
ROCKS
SEAS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SURFACE WATERS
TECTONICS
580300* - Mineralogy
Petrology
& Rock Mechanics- (-1989)