Evolution of the Main Ethiopian Rift in the frame of Afar and Kenya rifts propagation

Abstract

The Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) has a complex structural pattern composed of southern, central, and northern segments. Ages of onset of faulting and volcanism apparently indicate a heterogeneous time‐space evolution of the segments, generally referred to as a northward progression of the rifting process. New structural, petrological, and geochronological data have been used to attempt reconciling the evolution of the distinct MER segments into a volcanotectonic scenario accounting for the propagation of the Afar and the Kenya Rifts. In this evolutionary model, extension affected the Southern MER in the early Miocene (20–21 Ma) due to the northward propagation of the Kenya Rift‐related deformation. This event lasted until 11 Ma, then deformation decreased radically and was resumed in Quaternary times. In the late Miocene (11 Ma), deformation focused in the Northern MER forming a proto‐rift that we consider as the southernmost propagation of Afar. No major extensional deformation affected the Central MER in this period, as testified by the emplacement at 12–8 Ma of extensive plateau basalts currently outcropping on both rift margins. Significant rift opening occurred in the Central MER during the Pliocene (∼5–3 Ma) with the eruption of voluminous ignimbritic covers (Nazret sequence) exposed both on the rift shoulders and on the rift floor. The apparent discrepancy between the heterogeneous propagation of the three MER segments could be reconciled by considering the opening of Central MER and the later reactivation of the Southern MER as due to a southward propagation of rifting triggered by counterclockwise rotation of the Somalian plate starting around 10 Ma.