ELSEVIER Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367

The Tana basin, Ethiopia: intra-plateau uplift, rifting and subsidence

J. Chorowicz a,Ł , B. Collet a , F.F. Bonavia a , P. Mohr b , J.F. Parrot a , T. Korme c
a Département de Géotectonique (URA 1759), Université Pierre-et-Marie Curie, Case 129, 4 Place Jussieu,
75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
b Department of Geology, University of Asmara, P.O. Box 1220, Asmara, Eritrea
c Department of Geology, University of Addis Ababa, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Received 29 May 1997; accepted 20 May 1998

Abstract

The Tana basin is situated on the northwestern plateau of Ethiopia, west of the Afar depression. The basin is perched on
a topographic high. New data from digital elevation modelling and satellite imagery analysis confirm the basin’s location
at the junction of three grabens: the Dengel Ber (buried), Gondar (exposed by erosion) and Debre Tabor (reactivated).
This structural complex was notably active during the build-up of the mid-Tertiary flood basalt pile, into which the Tana
basin is impressed. Fault reactivation occurred in the Late Miocene–Quaternary, accompanied locally by predominantly
basaltic volcanism. Fault-slip indicators are consistent with crustal subsidence centred on the present morphologic basin.
Concentric and radial dike patterns in the Tana region indicate that diking and basin formation were contemporary. Tana
rifting and magmatism occurred above the inferred western side of the Afar mantle plume-head.  1998 Elsevier Science
B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Ethiopia; Afar plume; Lake Tana; triple junction

1. Introduction The structural complex in which the Tana basin

The Ethiopian plateau is not a simple, undeformed
structural block. In the northwest, it contains the
Tana basin, a faulted depression located between the
erosional escarpment overlooking the Sudan plains
to the west and, to the east, the tectonic escarpment
of the plateau margin overlooking the Afar depres-
sion (Figs. 1 and 2a). Few data and descriptions are
presently available concerning the Tana basin, yet
the importance of this area in the context of the
African Rift System and its flood basalt magmatism
warrants the present contribution.
Ł Correspondingauthor. Tel.: C33 (1) 4326-8246; Fax: C33 (1)
4427-5085; E-mail: choro@lgs.jussieu.fr
participates (Fig. 2b) has a dominant meridional
trend that parallels the plateau–Afar margin far-
ther east, but no connecting structural link is evi-
dent (Mohr, 1967a, 1975; Kazmin, 1972). The new
data presented here, from digital elevation modelling
(DEM), satellite imagery and fault-slip analysis of
the Tana area, seek to focus more sharply on this in-
tra-plateau locus of volcanism and faulting (Fig. 1).
2. Structural and tectonic setting
The Tana basin is perched within a plateau setting
(Fig. 2a) that averages ¾2000 m in elevation (Grab-
ham and Black, 1925; Jepsen and Athearn, 1961).

0040-1951/98/$19.00  1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII: S 0 0 4 0 - 1 9 5 1 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 1 2 8 - 0
352 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367

Fig. 1. (a) Location of the Tana basin in the Afar triple-junction system, showing the extent of Cenozoic volcanism. The E–W line is the
location of cross-section of (b). (b) Geologic cross-section (located on a) drawn along profile 2 of Fig. 2a, using an isohypsal map of the
top surface of the Precambrian basement compiled by Beyth (1991).

East of the basin, the plateau supports several de-
nuded shield volcanoes, the largest being the 4620-
m-high Simen Mountain (Fig. 2b) (Minucci, 1938a;
USCGS, 1963; Mohr, 1967b). West of the basin,
where denudation has removed the original volcanic
cover, the Belaya massif preserves the core of an
isolated mid-Tertiary volcanic centre (Grabham and
Black, 1925). The watershed between Tana-directed
drainage to the east and Sudan-directed drainage to
the west is formed by a persistent, indented, west-
facing escarpment, the West Tana escarpment.
Relief within the Tana basin is subdued. Low
mesas and intervening gently incised valleys circum-
scribe a broad, saucer-shaped depocentre. The mor-
phologic basin containing Lake Tana occupies an
area of 16,500 km2 , of which the lake covers 3156
km2 at an elevation of 1786 m (USCGS, 1963). Max-
imum water depth in this ‘velo di acqua’ is a mere
 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
14 m (Morandini, 1938; Dainelli, 1943). The lake is
considered to owe its present form to damming by a
50-km-long Quaternary basalt flow, which filled the
exit channel of the Abbay river to a possible depth of
100 m (Grabham and Black, 1925; Minucci, 1938b;
Jepsen and Athearn, 1961). The age of this lava flow
is estimated to be some 10,000 years B.P. (Grabham
and Black, 1925).
The Tertiary flood basalt pile in northwestern
Ethiopia averages 1000 m to 1500 m in thickness
(Minucci, 1938b; Jepsen and Athearn, 1961). The
stratoid succession is not yet mapped in the Tana
basin sector. Along the eastern side of the plateau,
it comprises four major formations, all diachronous:
from bottom to top, Ashangi (an ascribed Eocene
age remains disputed), Aiba (32–25 Ma), Alaji (32–
15 Ma), and Termaber (30–13 Ma) (Zanettin et al.,
1974; Mohr, 1983; Mohr and Zanettin, 1988). Within
the Tana basin, attribution of the pile to the Aiba and
Alaji fms. is tentative (Merla et al., 1979), although
a thick succession of trachytic lavas and tuffs east of
the basin (Zanettin et al., 1974) suggests the pres-
ence there of the Alaji Fm. New geochronological
(40 Ar=39 Ar) and magnetostratigraphic data along the
escarpment, east of the Tana basin, indicate that the
bulk of Ethiopian traps erupted at about 30 Ma in two
pulses, each possibly only a few hundred thousand
years long (Hofmann et al., 1997).
The stratoid pile rests in turn with unconformity
on Mesozoic marine strata. Those strata crop out
as a 200-m-thick sequence on the Tana escarpment
130 km to the west, and as a 1500-m-thick sequence
in the Abbay canyon to the south (Grabham and
Black, 1925; Dainelli, 1943; Jepsen and Athearn,
1961). A basement of Neoproterozoic metamorphic
intrusive rocks, not exposed within the basin itself,
is considered to be a northward continuation of the
sutured terrains mapped by Davidson (1983) and
Ayalew et al. (1990) along the western side of the
central Ethiopian plateau.
Quaternary olivine basalt and subordinate phono-
litic lavas cover much of the southern Tana basin
(Jepsen and Athearn, 1961). Quaternary lacustrine
and alluvial deposits have been observed to rest dis-
conformably on a palaeosurface, over the Tertiary
flood basalts that underlie the Tana basin (Grabham
and Black, 1925; Comucci, 1950).
353
3. Morphotectonic analysis
3.1. Regional uplift
Uplift at close to 2000 m of the Tana area (Fig. 2)
is inferred from several observations:
(a) The drainage systems outside the Tana basin
are radially divergent. They comprise the Beles,
directed southwestward, the Dinder, westward, the
Tekeze, northeastward, and the Abbay (Blue Nile),
southeastward.
(b) The Abbay river provides the outflow from the
lake. It falls into a deeply incised canyon (Fig. 2b)
initially bearing southeastward, but after 100 km
it commences a gradual clockwise turn through a
huge semicircular loop across the plateau, deflecting
around the Chokay volcanic shield. The Abbay fi-
nally leaves the plateau to emerge westward onto the
Sudan plains (Fig. 2a). This pattern suggests a focus
of uplift in the Tana region.
(c) Topographic cross-sections made from digital
elevation modelling (Fig. 2) emphasise the singular
elevation of the Tana region (Fig. 3). Profile 1 is that
of a typical rift shoulder resulting from tectono-ther-
mal evolution of the border of a rift system. Profiles
2 and 3 can be regarded as resulting from three
components: (1) tectono-thermal uplift of the rift
shoulders (shaded in Fig. 3); (2) a swell centred on
Lake Tana (dotted line); and (3) the shield volcanoes
to the east (white in Fig. 3). These patterns are also
well expressed on a geologic cross-section which
we have drawn along profile 2 (Fig. 1b), across the
northwestern plateau of Ethiopia, using a map of the
top surface of the Precambrian basement compiled
by Beyth (1991). Subsidence occurs at the centre of
the Lake Tana swell.
(d) The Tana escarpment, passing west of the Tana
basin (Fig. 2), represents an erosion of at least 1000 m
of stratoid lavas. This erosion was necessarily induced
by uplift. In the north, the N–S-trending escarpment
turns to a NE–SW trend across the Gondar graben,
and then intensifies into the 1500-m-high, west-fac-
ing cliffs of the Simen massif (Mohr, 1967b). The
age of initiation of the escarpment has yet to be es-
tablished, but the degree of excavation of the Simen
and Belaya massifs would not be inconsistent with
a Late Miocene (or even earlier) individualisation of
the Ethiopian plateau from the Sudan peneplain.
354 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367 355

Fig. 3. Automatic topographic cross-sections made from the DEM of Fig. 2. Profiles 1 to 3 are located on Fig. 2a. The thick line is the
idealised topography of a typical tectono-thermal rift shoulder. In profiles 2 and 3, the shaded component expresses the tectono-thermal
uplift of the Afar and Ethiopian rift shoulders, while the white component expresses a swell centred on the Tana basin, depicted by
dotted lines. The shield volcanoes are confined within this line.

McDougall et al. (1975) have argued for a ¾23.5
Ma (Early Miocene) initiation of the Abbay drainage
system, and thereby for the initial uplift of the
plateau. Renewed uplift, since 8 Ma, of the Tana
basin region through some 1000 m is indicated from
palaeofloral evidence (Yemane et al., 1985). This
provides a mean uplift rate of 0.1 mm=year, which
however must incorporate a relatively abrupt and
rapid uplift phase in Plio–Pleistocene time (Mohr,
1967b).
3.2. Dikes and plugs
The Tana area is characterised by widespread dike
and pipe feeders which contributed to the mid-Ter-
tiary flood basalt flows of this sector of the Ethiopian
plateau (Mohr and Zanettin, 1988). Especially dur-
ing the later stages of volcanism, however, magmatic
egress became focused and built-up large shield vol-
canoes. The centre of the Simen shield has been
exposed by deep Pleistocene glacial excavation to
reveal a N–S-biased nexus of short dikes (Mohr,
1967b). Even more severe denudation, caused by re-
cession of the West Tana escarpment, has revealed
the 20-km-diameter Angareb Ring Complex (Hahn
et al., 1977) north of the Tana basin (Fig. 4). Within
the Tana basin itself, small basaltic feeder plugs are a
common feature north of the lake, while plugs (‘am-
bas’) of trachyte and phonolite east and southeast of
the lake mark terminal parasitic activity on the flanks
of the Guna shield volcano (Jepsen and Athearn,
1961).
Persistent dikes identified and mapped from satel-
lite imagery form intersecting concentric and radial
patterns (Fig. 5). Dikes gently curved in plan view,
concave to the lake at the focus of the basin, are a
notable feature of the western rim of the Tana basin
(Fig. 5a) and east of the lake (Fig. 6a). However,
there is no field evidence for any volcanic focus
within Lake Tana, to support the concept that an
Angareb-type centre underlies the stratoid pile here
(see also Chadwick and Dieterich, 1995).
3.3. Faulting and grabens
Lake Tana has previously been indicated by Mohr
and Rogers (1966), Kazmin (1972) and Merla et al.
(1979) to be located in fault-bounded grabens, with
the Gonder and Debre Tabor grabens (Fig. 2) clearly
indicated. According to Jepsen and Athearn (1961)
and Berhe et al. (1987), the Gondar graben runs
discontinuously far south across the Tana basin. We
shall argue that the three grabens together form a
triple junction at the centre of the Tana basin: (1)

Fig. 2. (a) Digital elevation model of north-central Ethiopia and adjacent regions, based on 1 : 2,000,000 topographic map and 200-m
contour intervals. Insets show locations of Fig. 1b (solid line) and Fig. 3 (dotted lines). A D Abbay (Blue Nile) river canyon; ER D
Ethiopian rift. 1, 2, 3 represent the locations of automatic topographic cross-sections of Fig. 3. (b) Digital elevation model of the Tana
basin and adjacent areas. A D Abbay (Blue Nile) river canyon; B D Belaya volcano; C D Chokay volcano; DBG D Dengel Ber graben;
DTG D Debre Tabor graben; GG D Gondar graben; G D Guna volcanic centre; S D Simen Mountain; T D Tekeze river valley; TE D
West Tana escarpment (facing west and northwest).
356 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
the Gondar graben is evident on satellite images;
(2) the Dengel Ber graben is also present, but is
morphologically inverted and its southern prolonga-
tion is hidden; (3) the Debre Tabor graben is well
documented in the field and on our images.
(1) The northern sector of the Tana basin is an
asymmetric graben (the Gondar graben), the western
boundary fault zone being framed by clearly defined
NNW–SSE- to N–S-trending faults (Fig. 4). Farther
north, the Gondar graben is cut by the West Tana
escarpment. In its southern sector the Gondar graben
floor preserves olivine basalt flows and overlying
lignitiferous lacustrine sediments (Fig. 7). Together
these form a thin cover upon faulted mid-Tertiary
basalts (Usoni, 1945; Tezera and Heeman, 1983).
The younger basalts have yielded an 8–10 Ma ra-
diometric apparent-age range (Yemane et al., 1985).
They mantle older faults that now lack morpho-
logic expression, whereas the youngest faults cut
across these mid-Tertiary flows and retain identifi-
able scarps.
(2) The southern sector of the Tana basin com-
prises the Dengel Ber graben (Figs. 4 and 5). Its
western border is framed by NE–SW- to NNE–
SSW-striking faults. The graben is largely masked
by the profuse volcanism that has built up the Dan-
ghila plateau. Our mapping proves the exposure of
Precambrian basement in the upper Beles valley,
reaching as close as 40 km southwest of Lake Tana
(Fig. 5). Grabham and Black (1925) report outcrop
of probable Mesozoic sandstone on the eastern flanks
of Mt. Belaya, consistent with this discovery. The in-
dication is therefore one of shoulder uplift along the
western side of the Dengel Ber graben, in concert
with observed block faulting (Fig. 5b). This shoulder
uplift favoured location of the West Tana erosional
escarpment along the western border of the graben,
resulting in inversion of the graben topography. The
southward continuation of the Dengel Ber graben
remains to be elucidated.
(3) Over the eastern side of the Tana basin, al-
luvial cover partly masks the Debre Tabor graben
Fig. 4. Stress tensors of striated faults, located on inset map. Stereoplots on lower hemisphere Schmidt diagrams; percentages refer to
data falling in the extensional dihedron. The inset map is derived from four Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) images enlarged
to 1 : 500,000. Areas of Fig. 5a and Fig. 6a are outlined. Area in grey is the inferred three-graben junction (Gondar, Debre Tabor and
Dengel Ber).
357
(Mohr and Rogers, 1966) (Figs. 4 and 6a). Neverthe-
less, some of the bounding faults of the graben show
topographic reactivation. North of Debre Tabor, E–
W-striking faults with a morphologic expression in-
dicating southerly downthrows, can be traced farther
east, where they turn to ESE–WNW before termina-
tion against the Guna shield volcano (Fig. 6a). The
faulting then reappears on the southeastern flanks of
the shield. On the opposing, southern side of the
Debre Tabor graben, a complementary set of E–W
faults veers to the east-southeast farther east, and is
downthrown to the north (Fig. 6). On skirting the
southern fringe of the Guna volcanic massif it turns
back to the east-northeast, and again testifies to a
later faulting episode.
As noted by Zanettin (1993), the Tana basin
therefore lies at the convergence of three grabens:
the Debre Tabor graben from the east, the Gondar
graben from the north-northwest, and the Dengel
Ber graben from the south-southwest. The grabens
are impressed in the mid-Tertiary flood basalt pile;
lack of exposure of the sub-volcanic terrain hides
evidence for any earlier structural history. Zanettin
et al. (1980, figs. 6 and 8) propose that Eocene pre-
Afar graben faulting extended northwest across what
is now the N Ethiopian plateau to the Sudan bor-
der. This ‘Ashanghi graben’ is considered by these
authors to have formed a westward projection of an
Eocene Gulf of Aden rift. We as yet find no structural
evidence from the Tana area to support this scenario.
3.4. Subsidence
The Tana basin is bounded between watersheds
that run 8–25 km to the west and 25–75 km to
the east of the respective Lake Tana shores, and
converge and close around the northern side of the
lake (Fig. 2b). Centripetal drainage into the lake has
its main inflow from the Little Abbay river in the
south (Fig. 8).
Along the southwestern side of the basin runs a
20-km-wide zone of curvilinear faults and associated
358 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367 359

tilted fault-blocks cut by NE–SW-striking transfer
faults (Fig. 5a, Fig. 9a). It has been uncovered by
recession of the West Tana escarpment (Jepsen and
Athearn, 1961; Mohr and Rogers, 1966). The faulted
blocks average 1–4 km width, strike NNE–SSW,
and dip east into the Tana basin. They therefore
contribute to the basin structure. Although the in-
dividual tilted blocks dip at angles of 15º–20º to
the east (Fig. 9b,c=3), their antithetical arrangement
expresses an overall subsidence angle of only ¾1º.
The blocks expose stratified ferro-trachytes and ign-
imbrites exhumed from under a cover of horizontal
augite-phyric and aphyric basalt flows to either side
of the Beles valley (Comucci, 1950; Jepsen and At-
hearn, 1961). These basalts appear continuous with
the mid-Tertiary basalt sequence on both rim and
floor of the Tana basin. The trachytes and ign-
imbrites may testify to explosive volcanism linked
to a caldera, of similar size (and age?) to the An-
gareb centre farther north (Hahn et al., 1977), now
hidden beneath the younger volcanics and alluvium
of the Tana basin. The basin itself, with a diameter
of 80 km, is too large to be regarded as a caldera.
Was an episode of explosive silicic volcanism (as
yet undated) associated with crustal extension and
thinning, following which flood basalts covered the
entire region?
Gently inward-directed dips of the Tertiary stra-
toid basalts toward the centre of the Tana basin are
displayed to the west, north and east of the lake
(Fig. 8). However, near Gondar, dips as steep as 20º
to the south are observed. Lake Tana therefore oc-
cupies a structural basin with narrow shoulders and
a broad flat floor. The basin was occupied at least
in part by a lake some 8 Ma ago, when lignitiferous
sediments were deposited within it, but it is not yet
known whether that lake survived ensuing regional
uplift (Fig. 9c=1,c=2). Sparse gravity data reveal 20–
50 mGal positive Bouguer anomalies to coincide with
the axes of the Debre Tabor and Gondar grabens. The
anomalies are superimposed on a gentle gradient of
increasing gravity westward across the basin (Mohr
and Rogers, 1966; Mohr and Gouin, 1967; Makris et
al., 1991). Further surveys are required to seek any
gravity signature related to the central subsidence of
the basin. The geologic cross-section of Fig. 1b, made
from the Precambrian isohypsal map of Beyth (1991),
indicates important subsidence in the Tana region. We
hypothesise that asthenospheric mantle has intruded
the lithosphere as a result of plume activity in the
Tana region, inducing thermal uplift (Fig. 9c=1,c=2)
and formation of three grabens. Subsequent thermal
subsidence is responsible for creation of inward-dip-
ping fault blocks (Fig. 9c=3).
3.5. Microtectonics
Slickenside and grooving orientations have been
measured at several locations around the basin
(Fig. 4), in each instance confined within a 100-m
radius and restricted to basaltic rocks (excepting lo-
cality 10 in lacustrine sediment). Palaeostress orien-
tations have been obtained from inversion of the field
data using the right-dihedral method of Angelier and
Mechler (1977), which computes the probability of
¦1 , ¦2 and ¦3 stress component orientations. In this
method, several fault and related striae orientations
are measured at each site. From each measurement
the plane orthogonal to both fault plane and related
striae is determined, forming with the fault plane
right dihedra that respectively contain the ¦1 axis in
the maximum compressive dihedron and the ¦3 axis
in the least compressive dihedron. Ideally, at a given
site, the computed intersections of all right-dihedra
define the orientation of the principal stress axes. In
the Tana basin (Fig. 4), the ¦1 orientation is found to
be always vertical; the ¦3 orientation is defined only
at localities 3 (Debre Tabor), 6 and 10 (Gondar),
and localities 15 and 20 (Dengel Ber). The overall
stress pattern therefore conforms with basin subsi-
dence at the locus of three converging grabens, with
no preferred regional extension direction.

Fig. 5. (a) Structural map of the SW Tana basin, based on Landsat-TM image interpretation (path=row coordinates 170=52, acquired 10
August 1988 with ¾5% cloud cover; enlarged to 1 : 250,000 for structural interpretation, and to 1 : 500,000 for stereoscopic observation
using Landsat-MSS imagery). Numbers refer to field localities where slickenside observations have been made. Small black triangles are
on downthrown side of faults. White square Fig. 9a. (b) WNW–ESE section showing inferred position of flood basalt across the Beles
drainage (vertical exaggeration ð 3).
360 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367 361

Fig. 7. Drawing from a photograph in the field in the southern sector of the Gondar graben, looking north, showing olivine basalt flows
and disconformable overlying lignitiferous lacustrine sediments preserved on the graben floor.

The palaeostress pattern can be further quantified
using the 4-D method of Angelier (1984). This com-
putes slip vectors and '-ratio .¦2 ¦3 /=.¦1 ¦3 /
which defines the stress ellipsoid: ' takes up val-
ues between 0 (¦2 D ¦3 , prolate uniaxial ellipsoid)
and 1 (¦1 D ¦2 , oblate uniaxial ellipsoid), while
intervening values where ¦1 > ¦2 > ¦3 indicate a
triaxial ellipsoid. The stereoplot data confirm the
vertical orientation of ¦1 at all localities (Fig. 10).
Four locations (1, 5, 12, 14) yield '-values close
to 0.5 (triaxial ellipsoid), with respective horizontal
¦3 orientations aligned NW–SE (locations 1 and 5),
WNW–ESE (location 14) and N–S (location 12). In
each instance, the ¦3 orientation is radial to the Tana
basin (Fig. 10, inset). However, a large set of the
stereoplots (locations 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15–18)
yield '-values close to 0 (prolate uniaxial ellipsoid,
with ¦2 ³ ¦3 ), consistent with subsidence due to
purely vertical forces.
Location 20, 50 km from the Tana basin in basalts
of the Dengel Ber graben, is the only sampling
site close to exposed Proterozoic basement. Analysis
of striated fault planes here offers two interpreta-
tions. Single-stage tectonism would yield a '-value
of ¾0.2 consistent with pure subsidence, while a
two-stage tectonism yields a '-value of >0.4 for
each of the stages. In the second interpretation, one
set of fault planes (20a) yields a NNE ¦3 orien-
tation radial to the Tana basin, as for locations 1,
5, 12 and 14 (Fig. 10, inset), again consistent with
basin subsidence centred on Lake Tana. The second
set (20b) yields a NW–SE orientation which may
specifically be related to extension across the Dengel
Ber graben.
4. Discussion
The equidimensional plan of Lake Tana is not
consonant with a lava-dammed, flooded river valley.
Nor is there evidence for a correspondingly aggraded
surface in the Little Abbay valley. Rather, the pre-
sent-day morphology expresses a central focus of
subsidence, despite fault reactivation and headward
downcutting of the Abbay. In addition, severe reces-
sion of the West Tana escarpment has modified the
extent of the original basin.
Structural data confirm that Lake Tana occupies
a centre of subsidence and graben convergence.
Initial subsidence occurred before termination of
the mid-Tertiary flood volcanism. Evidence for this
comes from the block-faulted terrain southwest of
the lake, unconformably overlain by subhorizontal
basalt flows that predate construction of shields such

Fig. 6. (a) Structural map of eastern side of Tana basin. Interpretation from Landsat-TM images, path=row coordinates 169=52, acquired
10 August 1988, cloud-free. Enlargements made to 1 : 250,000 for structural interpretation, and from Landsat-MSS imagery to 1 : 500,000
for stereoscopic study. Numbers refer to field localities where slip measurements have been made. (b) NE–SW section through the Guna
shield volcano and its peripheral fault belts (vertical exaggeration ð 3).
362 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367

Fig. 8. Drainage pattern of the Tana basin. Data from 1 : 2,000,000 Flight Chart Map. Areas above ¾2200 m in grey. Dips of recent
layers are convergent to the centre of the lake basin.

Fig. 9. (a) Enlarged Landsat-TM image showing SW Tana zone of NNE–SSW-striking faults and tilted blocks. Tilts are 15º to 20º
towards the lake. ‘V’ D site of (b). (b) N-directed composite photograph showing tilted blocks; fault scarps face west. (c) Inferred model
of doming (1), fracturing (2), and subsidence (3).
J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367 363
364 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367 365

as Guna volcano (Fig. 7). Subsequent subsidence

took the form mainly of reactivation of graben faults,
notably in the Late Miocene and Quaternary. Thus in
the Debre Tabor and Gondar grabens lacustrine de-
posits and olivine basalt flows unconformably overlie
faulted mid-Tertiary basalt (Usoni, 1945; Tezera and
Heeman, 1983; Yemane et al., 1985).
The Tana basin is perched on a regional to-
pographic high that is individualised within the
Ethiopian plateau. Interacting subsidence and up-
lift were associated with intersecting concentric and
radial dike patterns that fed the mid-Tertiary stra-
toid basalts. Locally, uplift and concomitant erosion
exceeding graben subsidence inverted the volcanic-
filled Dengel Ber graben. The timing of uplift of the
Tana region is not yet confirmed, but Late Miocene
(Yemane et al., 1985) and Quaternary episodes are
indicated. According to McDougall et al. (1975) and
Baker et al. (1996), initial uplift of the Ethiopian– Fig. 11. The Ethiopian plume zone deduced from Cenozoic traps
Yemen province occurred ¾30 Ma ago when the with Nubia–Arabia reconstitution.
Ethiopian lithosphere moved over the Afar mantle
plume (Schilling, 1975; Hart et al., 1989; Schilling
et al., 1992), and has operated since that time (Mc-
Dougall et al., 1975). However, according to Roger of the Ethiopian plateau? Several factors may have
et al. (1997), the plume-related characteristics of the contributed. (a) Two closely spaced lithospheric su-
lithospheric mantle in the Tana region were already tures in west-central Ethiopia, dated at ¾635 Ma
acquired before the Oligocene extrusion of the trap (Ayalew et al., 1990), project north-northeast via
series. the twin linear sectors of the ‘Big Bend’ (10.5ºN,
Given (a) the significant height (<1000 m) of the 36.5ºE) in the Abbay river (Jepsen and Athearn,
West Tana escarpment, (b) the southwestward extent 1961), and thence north-northeast up the Beles val-
of a linear dike swarm exposed along the water- ley and directly into the Tana basin. Unfortunately,
shed between the Beles and Dinder drainage basins the basement structure beneath the basin is com-
(Fig. 5a), and (c) the location of the Belaya mid-Ter- pletely masked by the Tertiary flood basalt pile. (b)
tiary volcanic centre, it is clear that a large thickness Gravity–topography relationships indicate that the
and area of stratoid basalts has been eroded from the Ethiopian plateau is maintained at its present eleva-
western side of the Ethiopian plateau. Reconstruct- tion by sublithospheric mantle upwelling and out-
ing the original distribution of these mid-Tertiary flow from under Afar (Ebinger et al., 1989). Local
basalts, prior to opening of the Red Sea and Gulf of divergence from this upwelling may occur beneath
Aden (Fig. 11), shows it to have had an ovoid plan the Tana basin (Piccirillo et al., 1979; Mohr, 1983).
with a longitudinal axis passing closer to Tana than More detailed gravity data are required from the
Afar. Tana region. (c) A mantle plume separate from that
Why might the Tana region have acted in sin- of Afar may have impinged beneath Eocene Ethiopia
gular tectonomagmatic fashion within the context in the Tana region (Bonavia et al., 1995).

Fig. 10. Fault-slip data for the Tana basin (field locality numbers as on Fig. 4; mean number of measurements at each locality ¾15).
Schmidt stereograms with a lower hemisphere projection. Rotation of ¦1 -axis conforms with fault block rotations; clustering of striations
suggests fault reactivations.
366 J. Chorowicz et al. / Tectonophysics 295 (1998) 351–367
5. Conclusions
(1) Our synthesis of previous knowledge and new
structural field and remote sensing data show that
the Tana basin occurs perched within a large (¾1000
km) dome uplifted in the Ethiopian plateau, now
considerably modified by erosion. The dolerite dike
pattern of the Tana region shown by satellite imagery
analysis is both radial and concentric.
(2) Basin subsidence is expressed in the dip and
strike of stratoid lavas and has affected the Late
Oligocene flood basalt pile. Microtectonic data indi-
cate a Neogene palaeostress pattern characterised by
prolate uniaxial ellipsoids, with ¦2 ³ ¦3 , consistent
with subsidence due to purely tensional forces. The
development of the basin is not yet terminated.
(3) Subsidence occurred at the focus of three con-
verging half-grabens, confirmed by satellite imagery
analysis. At least two phases of graben faulting have
occurred, the earlier marked by block tilting.
(4) The distribution of mid-Tertiary basalts prior
to opening of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has an
ovoid plan with a longitudinal axis passing closer to
Tana than Afar.
(5) These evidences raise major questions con-
cerning the location and regional influence of the
Afar mantle plume (Hart et al., 1989; Schilling et al.,
1992) and the plume-related Afar and the Ethiopian
rift. In our opinion the early hot-spot (or part of it)
may have been centred on the Tana lake.
(6) The importance of the Tana basin in the con-
text of regional uplift, rifting and subsidence war-
rants a systematic mapping of its volcanic stratigra-
phy, dikes and faults, in concert with more 39 Ar=40 Ar
isotopic dating of critical samples. The role of dik-
ing in basin subsidence, margin warping and pe-
ripheral uplift invites further elucidation. Compre-
hensive fault studies are necessary to specify the
stress field(s) within and around the Tana basin.
Geophysical soundings of the three grabens con-
verging on the Tana basin are required to deter-
mine the degrees of crustal attenuation and igneous
intrusion=underplating in each graben. Not least, the
location and tectonic nature of the original limits of
the Tana basin require to be established. Until such
a program is fulfilled, no proper understanding of
broader Ethiopian plateau evolution can be attained.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the French Embassy in Ethiopia
and the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers
(CNRS) for funding the project. An earlier phase
of the research was supported by the University
College of Addis Ababa. Reviews and suggested
improvements by René Guiraud, Philippe Huchon
and an anonymous referee were greatly appreciated.
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