Could a submarine channel have been created when the Red Sea re-flooded after desiccation?

What is it about?

We explore the evidence of structures within and around the channel and various ideas for how it formed. These include tectonic activity, since this area lies between the Arabian and Danakil plates. Sedimentary land sliding is also considered. However, both of these explanations do to obviously explain the channel, which has a low gradient (hence not likely be due to a landslide) and there is no gravity signature associated with it (hence unlikely to overlie an active tectonic graben with significant movement). We instead suggest the channel may have been carved during one or more inflow events when the Red Sea became isolate and partly desiccated, perhaps even as old as the end of the Miocene.

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Why is it important?

If correct, a massive inflow event would have been dramatic, like those proposed for the Mediterranean Sea at the end of the Messinian and for the Bosphorus / Black Sea at the end of the last glacial period.