GEOLOGY OF THE BASEMENT ROCKS OF ABU DURBA-ABU•HASWA AREA, SOUTHWESTERN SINAI, EGYPT.

Abstract

Abu Durba-Abu Haswa area lies within the basement complex of southwestern Sinai, representing the only exposed basement rocks along the eastern side of the Gulf of Suez that are collectively a part of the Arabo-Nubian shield. It is bounded between longitudes 33° 15' and 33° 25'E and latitudes 28° 25' and 28° 34 N; covering an area of about 108 Km2 .

Gabal Abu Durba and Gabal Abu Haswa are fault blocks that are dipping northeastward, bounded on the west by a clysmic faults and on the north by a NNE strike-slip faults. Faulting is the major structural feature of the study area, which dissected by numerous faults that have been identified into normal and strike-slip faults. Normal faults are either NW longitudinal faults or transverse faults mainly trending NE and E-W. The NNE strike-slip faults are named Durba-Araba fault and Durba-Ekma fault (Moustafa and Khalil, 1987). Durba-Araba fault is a strike-slip one with four kilometers of left-lateral displacement (Moustafa and Khalil, op.cit.), whereas Durba-Ekma fault is a right-lateral strike-slip fault. The couple forces manifested by these two parallel sensetral and dextral faults led to the clockwise rotation of Gabal Abu Durba block by about 15° towards the east.