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Initiation of the western branch of the East African Rift coeval with the eastern branch

Nature Geoscience volume 5, pages 289–294 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The East African Rift System transects the anomalously high-elevation Ethiopian and East African plateaux that together form part of the 6,000-km-long African superswell structure. Rifting putatively developed as a result of mantle plume activity that initiated under eastern Africa. The mantle activity has caused topographic uplift that has been connected to African Cenozoic climate change and faunal evolution. The rift is traditionally interpreted to be composed of two distinct segments: an older, volcanically active eastern branch and a younger, less volcanic western branch. Here, we show that initiation of rifting in the western branch began more than 14 million years earlier than previously thought, contemporaneously with the eastern branch. We use a combination of detrital zircon geochronology, tephro- and magnetostratigraphy, along with analyses of past river flow recorded in sedimentary rocks from the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania, to constrain the timing of rifting, magmatism and drainage development in this part of the western branch. We find that rift-related volcanism and lake development had begun by about 25 million years ago. These events were preceded by pediment development and a fluvial drainage reversal that we suggest records the onset of topographic uplift caused by the African superswell. We conclude that uplift of eastern Africa was more widespread and synchronous than previously recognized.

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Figure 1: East African Rift System (EARS).
Figure 2: Palaeogene stratigraphy of fluviolacustrine deposits in the RRB.
Figure 3: Detrital zircon provenance of the RRB and unroofing history of the western branch.
Figure 4: Post-Gondwanan drainage evolution model for central–east Africa.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was provided by the National Science Foundation (EAR-0617561), L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society (Committee for Research and Exploration), James Cook University, Ohio University and Michigan State University. We thank T. Blenkinsop for a constructive review; T. Hieronymus, Z. Jinnah, S. Ngasala, E. Johansen and J. Temba for field assistance; Y. Hu and K. Blake for technical support in the Advanced Analytical Centre; G. Messe and T. Barnum for help with palaeomagnetic measurements; the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology and the Tanzanian Antiquities Unit for logistical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia

    E. M. Roberts, P. H. G. M. Dirks & A. I. S. Kemp

  2. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, 228 Irvine Hall, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA

    N. J. Stevens & P. M. O’Connor

  3. Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, Irvine Hall, Athens, Ohio 45701, USA

    N. J. Stevens & P. M. O’Connor

  4. Department of Geological Sciences and MSU Museum, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA

    M. D. Gottfried

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA

    W. C. Clyde

  6. Research School of the Earth Sciences, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia

    R. A. Armstrong

  7. Centre for Exploration Targeting, School of Earth and Environment, the University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia

    A. I. S. Kemp

  8. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York 10964, USA

    S. Hemming

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Contributions

E.M.R., P.M.O., N.J.S. and M.D.G. developed the project and collected the field data. E.M.R., P.M.O., N.J.S., P.G.H.M., M.D.G. and W.C.C. developed the scientific concepts, interpreted the data and wrote the paper. R.A.A., A.I.S.K., S.H. and E.M.R. carried out the radio-isotopic dating. W.C.C. carried out palaeomagnetic analyses.

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Correspondence to E. M. Roberts.

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Roberts, E., Stevens, N., O’Connor, P. et al. Initiation of the western branch of the East African Rift coeval with the eastern branch. Nature Geosci 5, 289–294 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1432

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