A geological analogue of the biblical story
In the bible texts, the Israelites were able to cross the Red Sea by a parting of the seawaters, which allowed them to walk across on the seabed. The closing of those waters subsequently caught the pharaoh's pursing forces. There have been attempts to explain the parting in terms of the effects of wind on sea level over the northern Gulf of Suez. However, a geological story is now taking place in the deeper parts of the Red Sea that mimics the biblical story.
The Red Sea became isolated from the Mediterranean during the Miocene period (from 15 to 5 million years ago). Evaporation of seawater in the dry climate and restricted exchange with the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean led to rock salt being deposited, in places several kilometres in thickness.
Submarine salt flows
Those deposits are being rifted apart by the slow movement of the Arabian tectonic plate away from Africa. Surveying with sonars by British, Italian and German scientists has now revealed that the deposits are flowing into the axial rift valley, forming salt flows that appear similar to glaciers. Unlike the waters that closed on the pharaoh's forces, these deposits are slow-moving though in places they have swamped the axial rift valley.
A new collaboration involving scientists in Manchester and Kiel
A further expedition has now been approved by the German “steering commitee for medium-sized research vessels” to study a large submarine volcano, Mabahiss Mons, which has remained uncovered by salt deposits. Understanding how this volcano has grown and remained uncovered by deposits may ultimately help us to learn how new oceans form when continents rift apart, as it represents an early stage in the development of oceanic volcanism that produces the ocean floors.
