Sea Floor Spreading Of The Red Sea

Baker et al 1996.

Sea floor spreading of the red sea.

The red sea rift was formed by the divergence between the african plate and the arabian plate. It has several volcanoes and a few of them are active. Sea floor spreading in the gulf of aden begun about 16ma and about 4ma in the red sea e g. The rift transitioned from a continental rift to an oceanic rift.

In the general case seafloor spreading starts as a rift in a continental land mass similar to the red sea east africa rift system today. It extends from the dead sea transform fault system and ends at an intersection with the aden ridge and the east african rift forming the afar triple junction in the afar depression of the horn of africa. The red sea runs roughly straight for 2000km northwards to where it joins the aqaba dead sea transform rift system. The red sea rift itself is mostly useless because of the fact it is submerged underwater.

With the east african rift system the red sea and the gulf of aden form the afar triple junction. The process starts by heating at the base of the continental crust which causes it to become more plastic and less dense. Red sea tectonic models based on geological data are dominated by single stage rift models involving protracted stretching of continental crust followed by sea floor spreading at ca 5 ma and. Eventually geologist s predict seafloor spreading will completely separate the two continent s and join the red and mediterranean seas.

The red sea rift is a divergent boundary between the arabian and african plates. However t he red sea is a sea surrounded by people who use it often. The red sea rift is a spreading center between two tectonic plates the african plate and the arabian plate.