Aden Ridge

The rift system marks the divergent boundary between the Somali and Arabian tectonic plates, extending from the Owen transform fault in the Arabian Sea to the Afar triple junction or Afar Plume beneath the Gulf of Tadjoura in Djibouti.

[1] The Gulf of Aden is divided east to west into three distinct regions by large-scale discontinuities, the Socotra, Alula Fartak, and Shukra-El Sheik transform faults.

[1] Extension eventually gave way to seafloor spreading, first initiated near the Owen transform fault ~18 Ma ago.

The westernmost region of the Gulf, where the Tadjoura Ridge is located, has an anomalously high mantle temperature due to its proximity to the Afar plume.

The result of this is higher degrees of melting and magmatism below the ridge, which allows for longer spreading segments without transform faults.