Collaborative Research: Mantle Flow at Rifts: Analysis of a Natural Laboratory at the Gulf of Suez Using A PASSCAL Seismic Array and Numerical Modeling

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

9910554 Steckler This project involves a geophysical study of the northern Red Sea where the rift terminates into the sinistral Dead Sea transform and a slow spreading zone in the gulf of Suez. This area is a good natural laboratory for testing plate driven asthenospheric flow vs. bouyancy driven asthenospheric flow during continental rifting. The relative importance of each of these processes is to be evaluated from a combination of surface manifestations (topography, geologic history, subsidence history of basins) and probing of the deep structure with a passive seismic array. The seismic array, in turn, has two parts: a basic crustal structure component to determine basic geometry and a shear wave splitting component to look at mantle flow. The results of these studies will be combined with modeling studies (flexural modeling of rift flanks and mantle flow models) to develop a synthesis of the geodynamics. ***