Blue Nile rift

The Blue Nile rift is a major geological formation in the Sudan, a rift with a NW trend that terminates on the Central African Shear Zone.[1] It was formed through crustal extension during the break-up of Gondwana.

Rifts in Sudan and Kenya

The rift, and other rifts in the area such as the Bahr El Arab rift and White Nile rift, appears to have been activated several times since the Paleozoic era, which ended about 250 Ma.[fn 1] During periods of rapid uplift and subsidence, the rifts accumulated sediments of different ages, origins and methods of deposition.[2] Late Jurassic rifting occurred in the Blue Nile rift, with east-west half-graben extension connected by large-scale shear zones and pull-apart basins, and early Cretaceous rifting re-activated the Jurassic basin.[3]

The Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia may be a southeastern extension of the rift.[4] Further to the southeast, the late Palaeozoic-Mesozoic Ogaden Rift is aligned with the Blue Nile rift.[5]

Explanatory notes
  1. Ma = Million years ago
gollark: Or, well, could be.
gollark: I'm really quite impressed by how bad LyricTech™ strategies are, really.
gollark: We simulated all possible strategies you could use. They were bad. Really bad.
gollark: Maybe you're naive enough to believe the fake telemetry being transmitted using their keys, but we aren't.
gollark: Yes. They're actually quite bad.

References
  1. Kenneth Harold Olsen (1995). Continental rifts: evolution, structure, tectonics. Elsevier. p. 437. ISBN 0-444-89567-1.
  2. Ramsis B. Salama (1997). "6 Rift Basins of the Sudan". African Basins. pp. 105–149. ISBN 0-444-82571-1.
  3. William Bosworth (20 August 1992). "Mesozoic and early Tertiary rift tectonics in East Africa". Tectonophysics. 209 (1–4): 115–137. doi:10.1016/0040-1951(92)90014-W.
  4. N. DS. GANI; M. G. ABDELSALAM; S. GERA & M. R. GANI (2008). "Stratigraphic and structural evolution of the Blue Nile Basin, Northwestern Ethiopian Plateau" (PDF). Geological Journal. 44: 30–56. doi:10.1002/gj.1127. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2011-01-28.
  5. Daniel Mège; Tesfaye Korme (2004). "Dyke swarm emplacement in the Ethiopian Large Igneous Province: not only a matter of stress" (PDF). Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. 32: 283–310. doi:10.1016/s0377-0273(03)00318-4.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.