Midyan Peninsula, northern Red Sea, Saudi Arabia: Seismic imaging and regional interpretation

Abstract

The Midyan Peninsula of northwest Saudi Arabia offers an exceptional opportunity to observe a complex interplay of rifting, salt tectonics, and strike-slip faulting. Recently onshore 3-D, transition zone 2-D, and offshore 2-D seismic data have been acquired in the area. In addition, ongoing fieldwork and an active drilling program have provided new insights into the geologic history of the region. The initial stages of continental rifting began during the Early Oligocene (ca. 33 Ma) and often utilized pre-existing basement fault trends. The early syn-rift sedimentary record is typified by formation of deep half-grabens filled with thick wedges of primarily continental sediments, with lesser amounts of evaporitic and marine deposits.Seismic data show a distinct break in deposition occurred ca. 21 Ma characterized by a persistent angular unconformity near the basin-bounding fault, before a shift to marine and offshore deposits of the Lower Miocene Burqan Formation. Post-Burqan a second angular unconformity termed the mid-clysmic event is evident away from the basin edge. This surface exhibits significant relief created by re-activation of older EW-trending faults and lower Maqna Group sediments display substantial thickening across these faults. Overall, the Maqna section transitions from normal marine sedimentation to more restricted basin conditions before being succeeded by the thick-layered evaporite sequence of the Mansiyah Formation.Approximately 15–12 Ma active strike-slip faults appeared in the Red Sea and shifted the extension from rift normal to highly oblique directed at N15°–20°E, parallel to the Gulf of Aqaba. During this transition the composition of the rift-fill changed as well from basin-wide precipitates to thick siliciclastic wedges of the Ghawwas Formation. Seismic images of the Ghawwas show abrupt thickness changes and stratal geometries that date deposition as coincident with both the growth of Mansiyah Formation diapirs and the movement of a large detachment at the base of the Mansiyah.Roughly five million years ago, organized seafloor spreading began in the southern Red Sea and strike-slip motion intensified as deformation began to focus along the Dead Sea/Aqaba strike-slip fault system. Adjacent to Midyan, a pull-apart basin in the Gulf of Aqaba has opened over 26 km perpendicular to the strike-slip system resulting in significant footwall uplift. The positive interference of the Aqaba/Dead Sea and Red Sea footwall uplifts has uniquely exposed the full syn-rift stratigraphic section from basement to Upper Miocene at Midyan, making the area an ideal locality for field studies. Presence of the complete Miocene section on the Aqaba shoulder uplift clearly indicates the uplift occurred after the Miocene. Salt-filled pull-apart basins in the same orientation as the Gulf of Aqaba are also observed on 3-D seismic data in the Ifal Basin.