Morphotectonics of Kid drainage basin, Southeastern Sinai: A landscape evolution coeval to Gulf of Aqaba - Dead Sea rifting

The hanging terraces and canyons being at higher elevations on the Gulf of Aqaba fault-scarp; and the accumulation of younger alluvial fans, talus cones and bajada on its footslope indicate that the KDB landscape is basically shaped; and evolutionary modified by hinterland uplifting of the Gulf of Aqaba region. Hence, two morphotectonic evolution periods of the KDB terrain coincide with the early NE- and late NNE-trending extensional Pleistocene axes. The early period started with deposition of the older alluvial fan sediments that emerged at the outlet of KDB, and partially buried the Gulf of Aqaba fault-scarp. Subsequent hinterland uplifting revived the Gulf of Aqaba fault-scarp with development of hanging alluvial and bed-rock terraces; and the older alluvial fan sediments are uplifted on the footwall of southward-dipping normal faults whose hanging-wall received sediments of younger alluvial fans. Nature of the sediments constituting the Quaternary paleolakes and rift-related depressions, and their structural settings in Sinai, indicate that the Sinai terrain is basically shaped by crustal uplifting of the southern Sinai massif with severe rifting at the Gulf of Aqaba region.