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Remote sensing has become an essential tool to improve data collection and spatial\nanalysis in the geosciences. Identification of passive margin structures that are exposed along\nthe Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, and their control on landforms has been hampered by\nlimited data resolution and restricted access to this arid and inaccessible region. A major\nchallenge lies in distinguishing features in the landscape that formed due to long-term tectonic\nactivity and erosion from those features that modified the landscape recently. The goals of this\nthesis were to determine to what degree the study area is currently tectonically active, and\nwhat major hazards might affect the touristically developing coastal region.\nThis study deals with the structural and geomorphological evolution of the rift-related\nstructures and their impact on the sediment distribution and landforms variation in the\nnorthern Quseir area. In such a remote desert area, field and remote morphostructural analysis\nare needed to understand the structural and geomorphological evolution. The current study is\nmainly based on high-resolution QuickBird image analysis and field investigation. Field\nmapping was limited to one season, owing to acute safety concerns in the Eastern Desert.\nIn the study area, the pre-rift stratigraphy includes Pan-African basement rocks overlain by\npre-rift clastic and carbonate successions that range in age from Cambrian to Eocene. Syn-rift\nclastic and carbonate rocks range in age from Late Oligocene to recent and show depositional\npatterns controlled by fault systems. The field area exposes a section of a tectonically uplifted,\namagmatic sedimentary sequence, which formed due to passive-margin-related rifting of the\nRed Sea: the Mesozoic and Tertiary sedimentary units that fill the 7-km wide coastal strip are\nperfectly exposed as tilted fault blocks.\nThe results of my field mapping and structural analysis show that the fault architecture of\nthe area is dominated by a large NW-SE-striking fault system. A series of SE-dipping normal\nfaults are consistent in cross-section with listric fault geometry, rooting into an E-dipping\ndetachment at depth. Our mapping also revealed that left-steps in at least one of the major NS-\nstriking faults are accommodated by a flower structure, but not by SW-NE-oriented cross\nfaults as previously proposed in a neighboring area. Thus seismic activity is more likely to\noccur on the large NW-striking normal faults, leading to potentially larger Magnitude\nearthquakes than previously recognized in the area. The left-step may act as a barrier to\nrupture propagation and should be examined in more detail.\nThe northwestern Red Sea coast is part of the straight coastal segment that is generally\ncharacterized as seismically inactive. However, during the geological field mapping, I found\nevidence for Plio-/Pleistocene vertical coastal uplift, likely due to earthquake-related coastal\nand offshore faulting. Pliocene marine deposits emerged recently due to sea level-drop and\nearthquake-related uplift. Even the presence of up to five distinct Pleistocene coral terraces\nimplies that at least some of the coastal uplift was seismogenic, because terraces of the same\nage can be found at different elevations along strike. Presumably, some of the seawarddipping,\nN-S-striking normal faults are active today, despite the lack of recent instrumental\nseismicity. These findings imply long recurrence intervals for active faults in the northern\nQuseir area. These results differ from previously published results for the adjacent Quseir-Um\nGheig sub-basin area, were E-W-striking strike-slip faults were mapped to offset the N-Sstriking\nfaults, and had been inferred as earthquake-generating faults by Abd El-Wahed et al.\n(2010). Based on our mapping, we postulate that the large rift-parallel normal faults are\nseismogenic.\nDrainage network evolution within the study area is often structurally controlled and the\nnature of these controls was examined in this study. The Wadi Siatin stream channel network\nis classified in a relatively simple way, based on the high-resolution satellite data, with\ndendritic, and rectangular considered the most fundamental channel geometries.\nIt was possible to distinguish the different morphological elements of the network, as well as\nthe anomalies that affect the patterns. This analysis revealed, in the northern Red Sea area\nbasins, the existence of old structures whose successive reactivations have left their mark on\nthe drainage network. Comparison of joint systems direction with the directions of the main\ntrunk stream channel of Wadi Siatin shows that the channel is highly affected by tectonic\njointing. First-order channels follow easily erodable faults.\nInvestigations concerning the relationship of stream-flow orientation with geological\nstructure in the Wadi Siatin Basin shows that, generally, the least influenced flows are those\nof first-order which are governed simply by the valley side slopes on which they developed.\nHowever, in certain geological and geomorphological situations, there are clear exceptions to\nthis generalization. Certainly, locally, geological control of these small streams may be even\nhigher than in many streams of higher order. In the peripheral parts of the Basin, expansion of\ndrainage into the available space has obviously been easiest along lines of weakness and, as a\nconsequence of this, streams of the first order come to exhibit a high degree of adjustment to\nthe underlying structure. The maximum structural control is reached by the streams of the\nthird order. Towards the higher orders, the influence of local structure becomes weaker.