Thermochronometric evidence for diffuse extension and two-phase rifting within the Central Arabian Margin of the Red Sea Rift

Abstract

Numerical time-temperature models derived from a 2-D network of apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He ages reveal a three-stage thermotectonic history for the central Arabian rift flank (CARF) of the Red Sea Rift (RSR) system. The pre-rift Arabian-Nubian Shield existed as part of a passive Paleo-Tethyan margin until a widespread tectonic event at ~350 Ma exhumed the proto-CARF to mid-to-upper crustal structural levels. After remaining thermally stable through the Mesozoic, the first phase of RSR extension began with a distinct rift pulse at ~23 Ma when fault blocks across a 150 km wide area were exhumed along a diffuse set of rift-parallel faults from an average pre-rift flank depth of 1.7 ± 0.8 km. This rift onset age is mirrored in thermochronometric and sequence stratigraphic analyses elsewhere along the Red Sea Nubian and Arabian margins, confirming that rifting occurred concomitantly along the full Red Sea-Gulf of Suez rift system. Diffuse lithospheric extension lasted for 8 Myr before a second rift pulse at ~15 Ma, coincident with regional stress realignment, transferred active faulting basinward toward the modern RSR axial trough. CARF time-temperature models indicate that the prevalent rift style during both RSR extensional phases was one of localized, structurally controlled block faulting and contemporaneous dike injection, not wholesale rift flank uplift.