Thermo-tectonic imaging of the Gulf of Aden-Red Sea rift systems and Afro-Arabian hinterland

Low-temperature thermochronology has long been utilised in the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden rift systems and adjacent hinterlands to examine exhumation cooling histories of basement blocks, particularly where datable syn-tectonic strata and/or markers are often absent. Such data have provided insights into the spatio-temporal evolution of rift basins, morphotectonic rift shoulder development and timing and rate of surface uplift. However, the relatively limited number of samples and confined areas involved in many individual case studies have precluded insights into the longer wavelength tectonic and geodynamic phenomena responsible for the latest Eocene-Oligocene to Recent separation of the Arabian plate from African and its subsequent collision with Eurasia. We present a synthesis of a large array of titanite, zircon and apatite fission track and (U-Th-Sm)/He analyses (12 TFT, 12 THe, 32 ZFT, 392 ZHe, 465 AFT and 267 AHe) from across northeast Africa and Arabia, which provide novel insights into the Phanerozoic thermo-tectonic evolution of the Arabian plate that were previously difficult to decipher from an otherwise cumbersome and intractably large dataset. Eocene to Recent cooling-heating maps have been constructed through a regional interpolation protocol of standardised thermal history models generated from the thermochronology data coupled with burial histories produced from vitrinite reflectance and well data. The interpolations, referred to here as thermo-tectonic images, record a series of pronounced episodes of upper crustal thermal regime fluctuation related to development of the latest Eocene-Oligocene-Recent Gulf of Aden and Red Sea rift systems and Cenozoic formation of the Al Hajar Mountains of Oman and the United Arab Emirates. They also provide insights into the inherited tectono-thermal histories of these regions, which controlled the spatial and temporal distribution of subsequent strain. Integration of the thermo-tectonic images, compiled with paleogeographic reconstructions and the regional igneous and strain history, offer a fresh regional perspective allowing the interrelationship between tectonism, geodynamic activity and exhumation history of the land surface to be visualised and explored on a plate scale.