Incipient ocean spreading beneath the Arabian shield

Formation of new oceans by continental break-up is understood as a continuous evolution from rifting to ocean spreading. The Red Sea one few locations on Earth where plate boundary presently forms. Its provides key information how the tectonics operates and boundaries form evolve in time. While has already been formed southern spreading active, north-central segment still experiences rifting. region also west-east asymmetry: rift-related magmatism not located beneath rift axis, conventional models predict, but instead offset ca 300 km into Arabia. We propose geodynamic model which explains enigmatic asymmetry fully consistent with various types geological geophysical observations. demonstrate that transient feature will develop coincident Instead, forms across Our numerical experiments, supported geological, seismic gravity observations, predict 1–5 Myr extensional axis jump ~300 eastward Ad Damm strike-slip fault, normal central transform fault between on-going future crustal-scale weakness zones control lithosphere extension lead long-distance jumps axes affected hotspots. Therefore, our theoretical basis for understanding dynamics mechanisms transition at passive margins