HR: 08:40h
AN: T21B-03    [PDF]
TI: Fault Population Evolution in the Central Dip Province of the Suez Rift, Egypt
AU: * Gawthorpe, R L
EM: Rob.Gawthorpe@man.ac.uk
AF: University of Manchester, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL United Kingdom
AU: Jackson, C A
EM: Chris.Jackson@hydro.com
AF: Norsk Hydro, Norsk Hydro Research Centre, Sandsliveien 90, Bergen, N-5020 Norway
AU: Sharp, I R
EM: Ian.Sharp@hydro.com
AF: Norsk Hydro, Norsk Hydro Research Centre, Sandsliveien 90, Bergen, N-5020 Norway
AU: Young, M J
EM: mike.young@hydro.com
AF: University of Manchester, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL United Kingdom
AU: Moustafa, A R
EM: armoustafa@hotmail.com
AF: Ain Shams University, Department of Geology, Ain Shams University, Cairo, 11566 Egypt
AU: Leppard, C W
EM: Chris.Leppard@fs1.ge.man.ac.uk
AF: University of Manchester, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL United Kingdom
AB: Structural and stratigraphic analysis of outcrop and subsurface datasets from the late Oligocene-Recent of the Central Dip Province Suez rift, Egypt suggest that fault segment linkage, migration of the locus of fault activity, and displacement localisation were important processes controlling evolution of the normal fault population. Initial fault activity was distributed across fault blocks on fault segments that attained their final length within 1-2 My of rifting. These initial segments then either grew by increasing displacement and linked to form longer segmented fault zones or became inactive, during a rift initiation phase that lasted 6-8 My. Following this rift initiation phase, displacement became localised on $>$15-25 km long border fault zones bounding major, 10-20 km wide tilted fault blocks and many of the early high-displacement intra-block fault zones became inactive. Following displacement localisation onto the major hard-linked fault zones bounding the tilted fault blocks, the locus of fault activity and maximum displacement continued to migrate, with a trend to longer, but fewer active fault zones to the present day. This migration of fault activity between major crustal-scale normal faults can be viewed in terms of strain localisation at the rift scale.
DE: 8010 Fractures and faults
DE: 8109 Continental tectonics--extensional (0905)
SC: Tectonophysics [T]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting