Stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the early to middle Holocene Chipalamawamba Beds (Malawi Basin, Africa)

Bocxlaer, Bert Van; Salenbien, Wout; Praet, Nore; Verniers, Jacques

doi:10.5194/bg-9-4497-2012

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…nodicincta, a modern Lake Malawi endemic, by A. Gautier (unpublished data, 1968), cited in Van Damme (1984) and Van Damme and Pickford (2003), but this identification is incorrect. The Chiwondo shells are too poorly preserved to provide a specific attribution.…”

Section: The Paleontological Data Reviewed: the End Of Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In all smaller basins such as those in the Gregory and Ethiopian rift, fossil mollusc assemblages from Pliocene freshwater lakes are also known, but intense level fluctuations, endorheism and volcanic activity only permitted short lived incursions of eurytopic species and no evolution (Van Damme, 1984).…”

Section: Is the Pleistocene Climatic Destabilization Responsible For mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taxa such as Melanoides (Thiaridae) and Gabbiella (Bithyniidae) tolerate relatively high salinity concentrations and taxa such as Lanistes (Ampullariidae) and Chambardia (Iridinidae) are able to aestivate during extended dry periods (Van Damme, 1984). Populations of these taxa may have survived the Pleistocene salinity crises and modern representatives in the basin or in the lake such as Lanistes ellipticus, Gabbiella stanleyi and Chambardia nyassaensis may derive from basin endemics already present during Chiwondo times.…”

Section: The Paleontological Data Reviewed: the End Of Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the whole of the Pleistocene, information about molluscan life in the Malawi Basin is hence missing. The lacustrine ecosystem during that epoch must have fluctuated between a Lake Baringo-Lake Naivasha type of lake, i.e., with a conductivity in excess of 4000-4500 µS cm −1 without freshwater prosobranchs or bivalves 5772 D. Van Damme and A. Gautier: Lacustrine mollusc radiations in the Lake Malawi Basin and a Lake Turkana-Lake Langano type with a conductivity around 2200-2300 µS cm −1 , with only Melanoides and Gabbiella still present but dwarfed (Van Damme, 1976;Brown, 1994).…”

Section: The Paleontological Data Reviewed: the End Of Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The published literature in which provisional species lists of the Chiwondo fossil molluscs or part of them are provided is quite extensive and widely scattered. It includes Pain (1966), Gautier (1966), Gautier (1970), Van Damme (1984, 1988, Pickford (1999, 2003), Gorthner (1994), Gorthner et al (1992), Schrenk et al (1995), Schultheiß et al (2009) and .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lacustrine mollusc radiations in the Lake Malawi Basin: experiments in a natural laboratory for evolution

Damme

Gautier

2013

Biogeosciences

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In terminal Pliocene–early Pleistocene times, part of the Malawi Basin was occupied by paleo-lake Chiwondo. Molluscan biostratigraphy situates this freshwater lake either in the East African wet phase between 2.7–2.4 Ma or that of 2.0–1.8 Ma. In-lake divergent evolution remained restricted to a few molluscan taxa and was very modest. The lacustrine Chiwondo fauna went extinct at the beginning of the Pleistocene. The modern Lake Malawi malacofauna is depauperate and descends from ubiquistic southeast African taxa and some Malawi basin endemics that invaded the present lake after the Late Pleistocene mega-droughts. The Pleistocene aridity crises caused dramatic changes, affecting the malacofauna of all East African lakes. All lacustrine endemic faunas that had evolved in the Pliocene rift lakes, such as paleo-lake Chiwondo, became extinct. In Lake Tanganyika, the freshwater ecosystem did not crash as in other lakes, but the environmental changes were sufficiently important to trigger a vast radiation. All African endemic lacustrine molluscan clades that are the result of in-lake divergence are hence geologically young, including the vast Lavigeria clade in Lake Tanganyika (ca. 43 species)

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Section: The Paleontological Data Reviewed: the End Of Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Is the Pleistocene Climatic Destabilization Responsible For mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Paleontological Data Reviewed: the End Of Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Paleontological Data Reviewed: the End Of Lakementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lacustrine mollusc radiations in the Lake Malawi Basin: experiments in a natural laboratory for evolution

Damme

Gautier

2013

Biogeosciences

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Under-Displaced Normal Faults: Strain Accommodation along an Early-Stage Rift-Bounding Fault in the Southern Malawi Rift

Ojo

Ohenhen

Kolawole

et al. 2022

Preprint

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One of the fundamental problems in continental rift segmentation and propagation is how strain is accommodated along large rift-bounding faults (border faults) since the segmentation of propagating border faults control the expression of rift zones, syn-rift depo-centers, and long-term basin evolution. In the Southern Malawi Rift, where previous studies on the earlystage rifting only assessed border fault structure from surficial and topographic expression, we integrate surface and subsurface data to investigate border fault segmentation, linkage, and growth as proxies for strain accommodation along the Bilila-Mtakataka Fault (BMF) System. We used 30 m-resolution topographic relief maps, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and high-resolution aeromagnetic data to characterize the detailed fault geometry and provide a more robust estimate of along-fault displacement distribution. Our results reveal a discrepancy between sub-aerial segmentation of the BMF geometry (six segments), scarp height (five segments) reflecting the most recent episodes of fault offset, and cumulative throw (three composite segments) reflecting the long-term fault offset. We also observe that although the BMF exhibits continuity of sub-aerial scarps along its length, the throw distribution shows a higher estimate at the Northern-to-Central segment relay zone (423 m absolute, 364 m moving median) compared to the Central-to-Southern segment relay zone (371 m absolute, 297 m moving median). The ERT profiles across the relay zones suggest a shallower basement and a possible canyon-mouth alluvial fan stratigraphy at the Central-to-Southern segment relay zone, contrasting the deeper basement and "simpler" electrical stratigraphy at the Northern-to-Central relay. The results suggest a more complex long-term evolution of the BMF than was assumed in previous studies. A comparison of BMF's maximum displacement-vs-length with those of other Malawi Rift border faults and global normal fault populations suggest that although the BMF has possibly reached its maximum length, it remains largely under-displaced as its 580-837 m maximum displacement is significantly lower than that of faults of equivalent length. We suggest that the BMF may continue to accrue significant strain as tectonic extension progresses in the Southern Malawi Rift, thus posing a major seismic hazard in the region.

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Ecosystem change and establishment of an invasive snail alter gastropod communities in long-lived Lake Malawi

Bocxlaer

Albrecht

2014

Hydrobiologia

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Biotic invasions can have far-reaching effects in isolated, eco-insular systems such as the African Great Lakes, certainly in synergy with other anthropogenic stressors that affect ecosystem stability. Interactions between invasive and indigenous taxa across trophic levels often tend to propagate throughout the ecosystem, but also those at the same trophic level may affect biodiversity. Here, we examine faunal interactions between an invasive Asian morph of the cerithioidean gastropod Melanoides tuberculata and indigenous gastropods in long-lived Lake Malawi. Studying quantitative samples, we document a negative spatial correlation between the established invader and endemic Melanoides species, and positive ones between invasive and native M. tuberculata, and between native Melanoides and schistosome-transmitting Bulinus. Comparison of modern and fossil samples indicates that Melanoides communities have changed since the middle Holocene from consisting predominantly of endemic taxa (*95%) toward a dominance by non-endemics (*80%). External evidence suggests that ecosystem change, such as increased sedimentation and eutrophication, and interactions between the invasive and endemic Melanoides species are the most likely causes for these changes. More in-depth study of the benthic ecosystem is required to document interaction mechanisms better, but the invasive taxon is playing an important role in reshaping communities and diversity in Lake Malawi

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Stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the early to middle Holocene Chipalamawamba Beds (Malawi Basin, Africa)

Abstract: Abstract. We describe the Chipalamawamba

Cited by 12 publications

References 36 publications

Lacustrine mollusc radiations in the Lake Malawi Basin: experiments in a natural laboratory for evolution

Lacustrine mollusc radiations in the Lake Malawi Basin: experiments in a natural laboratory for evolution

Under-Displaced Normal Faults: Strain Accommodation along an Early-Stage Rift-Bounding Fault in the Southern Malawi Rift

Ecosystem change and establishment of an invasive snail alter gastropod communities in long-lived Lake Malawi

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