Late Tertiary structure and stratigraphy of North Sinai continental margin.

New seismic data provide information on the structural development and late Tertiary stratigraphy off N.Sinai. The upper continental slope is characterized by a series of platforms or steps. The lower continental slope is smooth, except for one low ridge. Numerous diapiric structures along the continental margin N of the Sinai Peninsula emerge from an evaporitic layer of late Tertiary age. The diapirs usually are aligned along WNW-trending faults. A salt ridge produces a submarine ridge in the lower continental rise. Two main fault trends have been mapped. In the W part of the continental margin they trend WNW and, in the E part, NE. These parallel the continental slopes of N.Sinai and S.Israel. The structural grain is controlled by two main tectonic elements: 1) rejuvenated basement faults of the continent-ocean transition zone; and 2) salt diapirism due to loading of Messinian evaporites with Nile-derived clastics.-from Authors