SEDIMENTATION, PROVENANCE, AND TECTONICS OF THE GULF OF ADEN

The Gulf of Aden, the eastern limb of the East African Triple Junction is located south of Yemen. This research focuses on establishing a viable correlation between the sedimentation in the Gulf of Aden, its geomorphology and geological structures influenced by the tectonic activity in the area. The Gulf of Aden sedimentary basin is mainly dominated by fine grained, well sorted, leptokurtic sand. Such characteristics indicate that the sediment was reworked during long distance transport from its original provenance. The data for this research was obtained from 15 samples. The geochemical analysis of the sand was done using an Invo-X-system XRF device. The data support the hypothesis that the sediments were recycled. The XRF and mineral data show the absence of meta-stable components as well as enrichment in ultra-stable minerals such as rutile, tourmaline, and zircon, as well as moderately stable magnetite. Further laboratory investigation of the sediments was conducted using various methods including heavy mineral separation, pipette technique, and grain-mounts. Results show that the basin sediments contain a relatively high content of heavy minerals, thus facilitating the reconstruction of the paleo-environment and the provenance of the sediments. The study site is a shallow dipping basin bounded by horsts and grabens. The systematic normal faults of this basin are connected to transform faults that correspond with the oblique angle of rifting. This research will continue to investigate the differential aspects of this sedimentary basin with emphasis on the general characteristics of the Triple Junction.