Open AccessScientists explore relationship between volcanoes, tectonics, climate, and human evolution in Africa
Author(s) -
Arndt Nicolas T.,
Manighetti Isabelle
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/98eo00103
Subject(s) - rift , flood basalt , geology , volcano , paleontology , volcanism , east african rift , basalt , tectonics , plate tectonics , cretaceous , extinction event , earth science , rift zone , flood myth , geography , archaeology , biological dispersal , population , demography , sociology
Did Ethiopian flood basalts cause rifting of the African continent, or were they merely a passive response of plate movements on a far larger scale? We know that the 30 Ma eruption of the youngest major flood basalt province was followed by opening of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, and that volcanic and tectonic activity continues to the present day along rift zones in the Afar depression. But we do not fully understand the link between these phenomena. Eruption of the Ethiopian flood basalts coincided with major climate changes, but not with mass extinctions, unlike the events at the Cretaceous‐Tertiary and Permian‐Triassic boundaries. Was this due to the character of the volcanism, or to other factors? Lucy and the first hominoids were found in rift valleys in central Afar. Could human evolution have been related to peculiar climatic, geographic, or geomorphological conditions in Ethiopia 500,000 years ago?