Blue Nile rift
The Blue Nile rift is a major geological structure 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.
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
- ^ Ma = Million years ago
References
- ^ Kenneth Harold Olsen (1995). Continental rifts: evolution, structure, tectonics. Elsevier. p. 437. ISBN 0-444-89567-1.
- ^ Ramsis B. Salama (1997). "6 Rift Basins of the Sudan". African Basins. pp. 105–149. ISBN 0-444-82571-1.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.[permanent dead link]
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- Major plates: African Plate
- Minor plates: Somali Plate
- Microplates: Lwandle Plate
- Madagascar Plate
- Rovuma Plate
- Seychelles Plate
- Victoria Microplate
- Aswa Dislocation
- Broodkop Shear Zone
- Central African Shear Zone
- Chuan Shear Zones
- Foumban Shear Zone
- Kandi Fault Zone
- Mwembeshi Shear Zone
- Todi Shear Zone
- Western Meseta Shear Zone
- Afar Triangle
- Anza trough
- Bahr el Arab rift
- Benue Trough
- Blue Nile rift
- East African Rift
- Gulf of Suez Rift
- Lamu Embayment
- Melut Basin
- Muglad Basin
- Red Sea Rift
- Sangha Aulacogen
- Atbara rift
- Urema Valley
- West and Central African Rift System
- White Nile rift
- Angola Basin
- Aoukar
- Blue Nile Basin
- Chad Basin
- Congo Basin
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- El Djouf
- Karoo Basin
- Gabon Basin
- Iullemmeden Basin
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- Aïr Mountains
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- Cameroon line
- Central Pangean Mountains
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- Eastern Arc Mountains
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