The present study aims to evaluate the subsurface structural framework of the area north of Ras Gharib in order to determine the locations, limits and depths of the main sedimentary basins in this area. These targets were carried out through integrated analysis and interpretation of the aero-magnetic map aided by geological information from number of the drilled wells in the area. This map was treated using different techniques of processing and interpretation including; reduction of the aeromagnetic data to the north magnetic pole, analysis of tectonic trends, different methods of regional-residual separation, estimation of the basement depths using spectral analysis technique, two and half-dimensional modeling and Euler deconvolution. The results obtained from various analytical and interpretation techniques are integrated and used to the construction of basement relief and basement tectonic maps of the studied area.The results illustrate that the studied area is affected greatly by three major fault trends in addition to three minor ones. The major trends are; the Suez (NW-SE), Tethyan (EW) and Najd (WNW-ESE) trends. While, the minor sets of faulting are the ENE-WSW, Aqaba (NNE-SSW) and East African (N-S) trends. Both the major and minor faults play the important role in the complication of the structural setting of the area. The depths to the basement rocks range from 0 km in the southwestern parts to more than 5.6 km in the northern parts. Moreover, the area has three large sedimentary basins in the eastern and northern parts of the area.
The integrated results of the different separation methods in addition to the constructed basement relief and basement tectonic maps reflect clearly that, the studied area is composed of alternative uplifted and downfaulted blocks running in the NW- SE direction (Suez trend) and intersected by another set of transeform faults mainly in the NNE-SSW direction (Aqaba trend), the NE-SW and E-W directions are also present. The magnetic modeling reveals the NE general dip regime of the area and the acidic composition of the basement blocks