Is the Suez Rift in Its Post‐Rift Phase?

Abstract Failed rifts are widely assumed to enter post‐rift tectonic quiescence after termination of intracontinental rifting, but a comprehensive understanding of their regional morphotectonics is lacking. Our quantitative, rift‐scale geomorphic analyses in the Suez Rift, an archetypal failed rift in Egypt, reveals widespread rifting after presumed rift “failure.” Stacked topographic swaths document normal fault offsets in Plio‐Quaternary rocks and fluvial metrics show steep gradients consistent with active faulting along the entire rift length. Quaternary shorelines uplifted along both margins constrain footwall uplift rates of up to 0.13 ± 0.04 mm/yr on normal faults with down‐dip heights of 10–15 km that were active by 3.12 ± 0.23 and 4.44 ± 0.2 Ma or earlier times. Pleistocene‐Recent extension rates of 0.26–0.55 mm/yr are lower than rates characterising preceding rift phases, albeit compatible with those of modestly active intracontinental rifts (e.g., Basin and Range). Our evidence of active extension after rift “abandonment” supports continued but decelerated rifting, not failure, in the Suez Rift.