Quaternary marine and continental sedimentation in the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Suez (Egyptian coast): influences of rift tectonics, climatic changes and sea-level fluctuations

The Red Sea, Coastal Landscapes, and Hominin Dispersals

“…These are sometimes accompanied by deep offshore depressions associated with salt withdrawal. These features are especially well marked in the region of the Farasan Islands, but are present elsewhere also (Bosence et al, 1998;Plaziat et al, 1998;Warren, 1999). Coral reefs are forming at the present day, and older cemented coral terraces are associated with previous high sea levels at higher elevations than the present day shoreline (Butzer and Hansen, 1968;Gvirtzman, 1994;Taviani, 1998).…”

“…Acheulean and Middle Stone Age material has been recovered, often in association with elevated coral terraces formed at previous periods of high sea level, notably in the north (Plaziat et al, 1998), in Djibouti (Faure and Roubet, 1968), and in Eritrea, where there is an important concentration of sites (Beyin and Shea, 2007) including the important find of Abdur dated at ca. 130 kya and associated with faunal remains and claims for the exploitation of marine resources (Walter et al, 2000).…”

Raised marine sequences of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura revisited—a reappraisal of relative sea-level changes and vertical movements in the eastern Canary Islands during the Quaternary

“…The climatic instability also produced sea-level changes that have been recorded and detected in raised terraces of many localities around the world. This is the case in the coasts of Pacific (Goy et al, 1992;Ortlieb et al, 1994) and A tlantic oceans (Hearty and Kindler, 1995;Hearty and Kaufman, 2000;Blanchon and Eisenhauer, 2001), Mediterranean sea (Zazo et al, 1993;Hillaire-Marcel et al 1996;Kindler et al, 1997), Red sea and Gulf of Suez (Plaziat et al, 1998). The exact elevation of sea level during MIS 5e is still somewhat unclear.…”

Quantitative comparison of Pleistocene and Recent coral reef habitats in the northern Red Sea (El Quseir, Egypt)

“…It is therefore possible that the Porites-and merulinid-dominated coral communities of the fossil reef terraces were once situated in a lagoonal back-reef habitat. The idea of tectonic uplift in this area has been rejected in numerous publications (e.g., Hoang and Taviani 1991;Bosworth and Taviani 1996;Plaziat et al 1998Plaziat et al , 2008, which supports the interpretation of the fossil terraces as backreefs rather than reef slopes. However, in a study that takes glacio-hydro-isostatic processes into account, Lambeck et al (2011) conclude that long-term tectonic uplift along the northern and central sides of the Red Sea is more likely than tectonic stability.…”

“…Back-reef zones are absent in the modern reef we studied and could thus not be used for comparison to the fossil reefs. However, the mean sea level was higher during the Eemian, and back-reef deposits are present in MIS 5e reefs at Quseir el Qadim (Plaziat et al 1998;Taviani 1998a). It is therefore possible that the Porites-and merulinid-dominated coral communities of the fossil reef terraces were once situated in a lagoonal back-reef habitat.…”