a similar way to Lake Asal, which ideally represents their compositional extreme. The high salinity of the waters was not hospitable to living organisms. Sometime during the Tertiary period, the Bab el Mandeb closed and the Red Sea evaporated to an empty hot dry salt-floored sink. Effects causing this would have been: A "race" between the Red Sea widening and Perim Island erupting filling the Bab el Mandeb with lava. The lowering of world sea level during the Ice Ages because of much water being locked up in the ice caps. A number of volcanic islands rise from the center of the sea. Most are dormant. However, in 2007, Jabal al-Tair island in the Bab el Mandeb strait erupted violently. Two new islands were formed in 2011 and 2013 in the Zubair Archipelago, a small chain of islands owned by Yemen. The first island, Sholan Island, emerged in an eruption in December 2011, the second island, Jadid, emerged in September 2013. Oilfields The Durwara 2 Field was discovered in 1963, while the Suakin 1 Field and the Bashayer 1A Field were discovered in 1976, on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea. The Barqan Field was discovered in 1969, and the Midyan Field in 1992, both within the Midyan Basin on the Saudi Arabian side of the Red Sea. The 20-m thick Middle Miocene Maqna Formation is an oil source rock in the basin. Oil seeps occur near the Farasan Islands, the Dahlak Archipelago, along the coast of Eritrea, and in the southeastern Red Sea along the coasts of Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Mineral resources In terms of mineral resources the major constituents of the Red Sea sediments are as follows: Biogenic constituents: Nanofossils, foraminifera, pteropods, siliceous fossils Volcanogenic constituents: Tuffites, volcanic ash, montmorillonite, cristobalite, zeolites Terrigenous constituents: Quartz, feldspars, rock fragments, mica, heavy minerals, clay minerals Authigenic minerals: Sulfide minerals, aragonite, calcite, protodolomite, dolomite, quartz, chalcedony. Evaporite minerals: Magnesite, gypsum, anhydrite, halite, polyhalite Brine precipitate: Fe-montmorillonite, goethite, hematite, siderite, rhodochrosite, pyrite, sphalerite, anhydrite. Ecosystem The Red Sea is a rich and diverse ecosystem. More than 1200 species of fish have been recorded in the Red Sea, and around 10% of these are found nowhere else. This also includes 42 species of deepwater fish. The rich diversity is in part due to the of coral reef extending along its coastline; these fringing reefs are 5000–7000 years old and are largely