Stratigraphic and structural evolution of the Blue Nile Basin, Northwestern Ethiopian Plateau

Gani, Nahid D.; Abdelsalam, M. G.; Gera, S.; Gani, M. Royhan

doi:10.1002/gj.1127

Cited by 73 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The geology of the Blue Nile River Basin has been studied by various researchers (Assefa 1991;Russo et al 1994;Abate et al 1996;Chorowiz et al 1998;Pik et al 1998;Kebede et al 1999;Gani and Abdelsalam 2006;Wolela 2007Wolela , 2008Gani et al 2009). The Blue Nile River Basin contains about 1,400 m of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks underlain by Neoproterozoic basement rocks and overlain by early to late Oligocene and Quaternary volcanic rocks (Gani et al 2009).…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The Blue Nile River Basin contains about 1,400 m of Mesozoic sedimentary rocks underlain by Neoproterozoic basement rocks and overlain by early to late Oligocene and Quaternary volcanic rocks (Gani et al 2009). Crystalline basement rocks, volcanic rocks, sedimentary rocks and alluvials constitute the primary geology of the basin (Fig.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of geodiversity on the groundwater resource potential in the upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

Abiye

Kebede

2011

Environ Earth Sci

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Groundwater has been the main source of water supply for large cities and towns over the last few decades in the upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia. However, provision is often unsuccessful because of poor well productivity, difficult drilling conditions, poor well positioning, or sometimes due to poor water quality. The growing pressure of urban population and industrial development is focusing unprecedented attention on the groundwater potential of the basin. The purpose of this work is to spatially characterize the groundwater potential of the upper Blue Nile River Basin with respect to variable recharge and geodiversity. The study shows that from the annual recharge obtained using the base flow separation method, the renewable groundwater potential in the basin was estimated to be in the range of 1.2 and 2 billion m 3 /year. The aquifers in the area are divided into three categories: low to moderate productivity (&3.5 l/s) which includes crystalline basement rocks, acidic lava flows and domes, and very fine alluvial sediments; moderate to high productivity (&5.5 l/s) that includes Mesozoic sedimentary rocks (sandstone, limestone, gypsum, dolomite); and high to very high productivity (&20 l/s) which includes basic lava flows of the Trap series, Quaternary lava flows and alluvial sediments.

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Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of geodiversity on the groundwater resource potential in the upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

Abiye

Kebede

2011

Environ Earth Sci

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“…The sea covered the NS-trending block-faulted structures connected to the Karoo rift system in southern Ethiopia (Ogaden region), and the NWtrending rift basins linked to the Central Africa shear zone in central Ethiopia (e.g., the Blue Nile rift) (Bosellini 1989;Hunegnaw et al 1998;Gani et al 2009) (Fig. 2.7).…”

Section: 4mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geology of Ethiopia: A Review and Geomorphological Perspectives

Abbate

Bruni

Sagri

2015

World Geomorphological Landscapes

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The Ethiopian region records about one billion years of geological history. The first event was the closure of the Mozambique ocean between West and East Gondwana with the development of the Ethiopian basement ranging in age from 880 to 550 Ma. This folded and tilted Proterozoic basement underwent intense erosion, which lasted one hundred million years, and destroyed any relief of the Precambrian orogen. Ordovician to Silurian fluviatile sediments and Late Carboniferous to Early Permian glacial deposits were laid down above an Early Paleozoic planation surface. The beginning of the breakup of Gondwana gave rise to the Jurassic flooding of the Horn of Africa with a marine transgression from the Paleotethys and the Indian/Madagascar nascent ocean. After this Jurassic transgression and deposition of Cretaceous continental deposits, the Ethiopian region was an exposed land for a period of about seventy million years during which a new important peneplanation surface developed. Concomitant with the first phase of the rifting of the Afro/Arabian plate, a prolific outpouring of the trap flood basalts took place predominantly during the Oligocene over a peneplained land surface of modest elevation. In the northern Ethiopian plateau, huge Miocene shield volcanoes were superimposed on the flood basalts. Following the end of the Oligocene, the volcanism shifted toward the Afar depression, which was experiencing a progressive stretching, and successively moved between the southern Ethiopian plateau and the Somali plateau in correspondence with the formation of the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER). The detachment of the Danakil block and Arabian subcontinent from the Nubian plate resulted in steep marginal escarpments marked by flexure and elongated sedimentary basins. Additional basins developed in the Afar depression and MER in connection with new phases of stretching. Many of these basins have yielded human remains crucial for reconstructing the first stages of human evolution. A full triple junction was achieved in the Early Pliocene when the MER penetrated into the Afar region, where the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea rifts were already moving toward a connection via the volcanic ranges of northern Afar. The present-day morphology of Ethiopia is linked to the formation of the Afar depression, MER, and Ethiopian plateaus. These events are linked to the impingement of one or more mantle plumes under the Afro-Arabian plate. The elevated topography of the Ethiopian plateaus is the result of profuse volcanic accumulation and successive uplift. This new highland structure brought about a reorganization of the East Africa river network and a drastic change in the atmospheric circulation.

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“…4) indicate that the transient nature of the tributaries is the result of perturbation of faults affecting Precambrian shear zones. Although there is no work on the displacement and magnitude of the shear zone and associated strike-slip and normal faults, some of these structures can also be reactivated during NE-SW and NW-SE-directed Tertiary extension into NNE-trending faults (e.g., Gani et al 2009). Again, these structures did not exert a major control on incisions, but only secondarily enhance them.…”

Section: Effect Of Tertiary Faultingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Erosion history from incision modeling and river profile morphologies: example from the Tekeze River System, Ethiopian Plateau, East Africa

Gani

2015

Arab J Geosci

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The Ethiopian Plateau in East Africa is arguably one of the best natural laboratories to study erosion from river morphology as the plateau has deeply incised by two major river systems of the Nile, the Blue Nile River in the south, and the Tekeze River in the north, yet an understanding of the incision history in the Tekeze River System remains undocumented. This research utilizes 3D incision model and bedrock river longitudinal-profile morphologies to investigate incision rate, magnitude, and timing. Incision data, generated from geochronologic age of lava flow integrated with SRTMderived digital elevation models (DEMs), and river morphologic data, extracted from tributary long profiles, suggest that the plateau is experiencing differential incision since ∼30 Ma, with an increased rate at ∼10 Ma. Incision map reveals that majority of the incision occurred along the tributaries of the Tekeze River, with the deepest incision of 1.6 km observed in the tributary Zerima. Longitudinal profiles of 23 tributaries show records of at least two major tectonic knickpoints, indicating at least three incision phases (phase I-III) where longterm incision rate since ∼30 Ma is ∼40 m/m.y. that started to increase to ∼100 m/m.y. since ∼10 Ma. Normalized steepness index (k sn ) from long profiles indicate higher incision within the plateau interior and along the rift-flank, but lower incision around Precambrian shear zones. Landscape evolution of the Ethiopian Plateau presented here contributes toward understanding of the geodynamics of the world's largest active continental rift system.

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Stratigraphic and structural evolution of the Blue Nile Basin, Northwestern Ethiopian Plateau

Cited by 73 publications

References 39 publications

The role of geodiversity on the groundwater resource potential in the upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

The role of geodiversity on the groundwater resource potential in the upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia

Geology of Ethiopia: A Review and Geomorphological Perspectives

Erosion history from incision modeling and river profile morphologies: example from the Tekeze River System, Ethiopian Plateau, East Africa

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